"10 years ago people wouldn't have come to Stockport. You would have come if you were looking to go to Boots but it wasn't a destination place."

Emma Bedford has just opened up her shop Mooch as one of Stockport's newest businesses in the Underbanks with her husband Mark.

A network of cobbled streets in and around the town's historic market, the streets are lined today with a range of different cafes, the odd bakery, bars, and shops.

13 years ago, Stockport had the highest rate of empty shops out of any town in the UK with things on a downward spiral and one person telling the LDRS it was a 's***hole'. While it is still tough for independent businesses, things are very different with new places opening all the time and people describing it is the next Northern Quarter.

New housing developments are seeing queues of people looking for a life the other side of the M60. Liberal Democrat Stockport council leader Mark Roberts said: "People are coming from Manchester to Stockport for a night out now. It wasn't that long ago it was the other way around."

With Andy Burnham now running the country as Prime Minister, there has been more national focus on his role in transforming what was once an overlooked town more than ever before. In the future, there's a £2bn investment plan to make Stockport 'the best place in the world', schemes for thousands of new homes, investment in more jobs, a new school, a new health centre, as well as a Metrolink extension, and a railway station upgrade.

While many agree the town has drastically improved, the rapid changes taking place are leading some to worry they may be pushed out in places just a few streets away from new high rise blocks and high-end restaurants. Homelessness is at record levels at the same time apartment are going up and new businesses move in.

Stockport has changed without a doubt but what it happens next and what that means for those living there is the question on everyone's lips.

'A leap of faith'

The start of Stockport's renaissance can be traced back to just outside the town's railway station. Now the centre of Stockport Exchange and shiny new offices, it began with something fairly unremarkable – a multistorey car park in 2014.

While this might not be considered bold, the scheme freed up all the car parking space in the area for building. What followed was a hotel, new office spaces, as well as new public space.

Speaking in what is now a growing business district, Paul Richards, deputy chief executive at Stockport Council, said: "I remember for years afterwards people would come out of the station coming back from Manchester, you had people getting off trains that had not been to Stockport for a while, and they thought they had got off in the wrong place."

At the time, there was little office space in the town centre and it was 'a bit of a leap of faith to put the office space in because we were competing with [Manchester] city centre.' This though is seen as key to why the town has seen success where others have failed.

Mr Richards told the LDRS: "Everybody wants investors and private money coming in and changing their place. Stockport realised you can't ask people to do stuff you are not prepared to do yourself.

"The early investment on the part of the council was to establish back in the day that Stockport is somewhere that can do better than it was doing. The council needed to be looking to build and also generate a return for the private sector.

"If the council were not going to do it, who was going to do it?"

While there may always be disagreements on the exact approach, Stockport's political parties agree the investment in the town has been good overall. James Frizzell, a Green councillor, even told the LDRS: "I won't say a word against it."

This 'grown up approach' appears to have been key to the council's success as investors do not have to worry if plans will be scrapped because of political change. Council leader Mark Roberts said: "It stems from the idea that has started in Stockport. Place before politics. Ideas before ideology.

"It's been important to make sure that there is that shared ambition. I think that is what has given us an edge in terms of bringing that external investment and private investment."

He added: "I can accept that everybody has a part to play in it which has been accelerated things here. The ambition we have set behind our town is what sets us apart. The positive future for our town is absolutely key to this.

"It's about delivering communities, not just buildings or homes. It's delivering a community people want to live in and be a part of. Our sense of community in Stockport is really strong. It's because of that Stockport can be the best place in the world."

The 'rocket booster' that really kicked things off

Never is that more evident than the Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) set up in 2019. A partnership between then-Greater Manchester Labour Mayor Andy Burnham and the council, it was a first in the UK to tackle town regeneration and this summer it was expanded in the hopes of bringing in £2bn of investment into the borough.

Cllr Roberts said the MDC 'put rocket boosters under that regeneration' as the council was able to access more funding and think bigger, adding: "We couldn't have done everything that has been done just on our own.

"No council has the ability to do that. Understanding those partnerships and being easy to work with, not every council is easy to work with."

Stockport's MDC is now being overseen by Lord Gavin Barwell, a former Conservative MP who now sits as a crossbencher, who told the LDRS the widespread political support had been 'hugely powerful' as Stockport had embraced Manchester's success in the ways other boroughs had not

He said: "We live in very uncertain times and investors are crying out for some certainty and stability and Stockport has an amazing story to tell."

Lord Barwell said: "It's not just providing homes for the people desperately need them but it's also turning around the town centre and changing how people feel about the town centre creating public spaces where people will go. It's got to be a town centre that people can be proud of.

"The key to it is having a place that feels like a destination in its own right but also part of the wider city regeneration. That is the trick we are trying to pull off."

While the council now is putting forward plans to build thousands of homes across the town centre, Mr Richards said the key to the council's success in the beginning was "starting small and thinking about how everything looks together".

The council owning the Merseyway Shopping Centre gives it greater control over the town centre, allowing it to do things like the massively popular Stockroom library with over a million visitors as well as some snazzy public toilets next door.

When many shopping centres are dying, Merseyway is seeing footfall increase. Mr Richards said: "It's imagining those things like the public realm and our world class toilets and the parking.

"Things that people take for granted and do not think about the thought behind it. It's all about those little things. We kind of built our regeneration plans from the bottom up."

'The next Northern quarter' that could 'give Altrincham a run for its money'

Some would argue nowhere is Stockport's turnaround more evident than in the Underbanks, an area done up with £7m that prides itself on its independent businesses. Emma Bedford, from Mooch, said: "This area wasn't somewhere I would come to 10 years ago.

"People wouldn't come. There wasn't so much going on but now I feel it's going to give Altrincham a run for its money.

To get her new shop on Mealhouse Brow, Emma said she had to fight for it because demand is so high, telling the LDRS: "If you said Stockport, people wouldn't have known what you were on about. Now everyone knows what is going on down here."

For many a key part of the town centre's success has been a successful market but also good links to buses and trains. Unlike many places in Greater Manchester, Stockport has the luxury of trains both to Piccadilly and London Euston.

Preserving the Underbank's history has also played a key role. Even two years after it reopened, manager of The White Lion pub Mark Chalmers said people are still finding out it's back.

The White Lion has been in Stockport since 1490 but for 15 years, it was shut becoming a symbol of the town's decline. The pub was bought by Stockport council, later done up, and then reopened in 2024.

It's tough for the pub like it is for many across the council but events like Stockparty in the town centre help bring in enough footfall needed to keep things going. Mark said: "No one knew how it was going to go. You can chuck money at something but it doesn't guarantee success.

"The weekends are good with plenty of people in the town centre. There is always an event going on. To me Stockport reminds me of the Northern Quarter and how the Northern Quarter started out. There was nothing there but now.

"Manchester has a lot more of an international feel while Stockport is like a local community where local people want to come and be."

For his business, the long term plans of thousands of homes and new transport links can only be a good thing, telling: "All these things help to try and bring more people into Stockport. I think it's a progression.

"I always thought this was a five year project. I was never going to sort it out in one or two years. I think we are grasping what will keep it successful and keep making money."

While weekends are busy, he said it could be 'tumbleweeds' and 'very quiet' early in the week but even that is now changing. The more places opening up, the more reasons for people to visit or come for a night out and businesses are now opening up throughout the week.

Mark told the LDRS: "I am not trying to say The White Lion is the main reason but the revival has given confidence for other businesses to see there is business out there.

"There has been a lot more places that have opened in the Underbanks or the surrounding areas, other shops, other bars, restaurants or takeaways. I have noticed there has been a ten fold increase in new businesses opening."

However he added: "It's not just about the White Lion. There's other places that we need to do well because we feed off each other."

A housing crisis, record homelessness, and fears Stockport could be split in two

Across central Stockport, employment rates are higher and further education achievements are up. At the same time, economic inactivity and unemployment is down in one report.

However homes are less affordable when compared to the rest of the North West and prices are on the rise. House prices are now the second highest in Greater Manchester behind just Trafford while rents have 'escalated considerably'. Compared to 2010, average rents were 88% higher in 2024.

Homelessness is on the rise too with 1,000 more asking for help than six years ago and on the streets, there are four times as many people rough sleeping compared to 2019. At the same time, there are currently around 9,500 households on the waiting list for social homes.

A recent council report warned homelessness is 'one of the most pressing challenges facing our communities' with 'increasing pressures on housing, driven by rising private rents, the cost-of-living crisis, and a shortage of affordable homes'. Councillor Jake Austin said this has led to 'record levels' of homelessness.

However there are hopeful signs too. Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig recently highlighted how the borough has built more social housing than has been lost while over 300 affordable homes are expected to be delivered in a number of schemes.

But in some areas just outside the town centre, people feel like they are still waiting. On Castle Street in Edgeley, not everyone feels part of what is going on and some young people are now moving outside of Stockport because they can get more elsewhere.

Garry Barratt said: "They are building all these flats and we can't get them. We have got no chance," adding: "Before they pedestrianised this, you had to walk on the road that was how busy it was with people on either side. We won't get that back.

"Half the pubs have been knocked down and rebuilt down here. That is half of the life gone in Stockport."

One woman, who works in social housing, said: "It's good for Stockport but you look at a local area like here and it's had no effect. It's too run down.

"The amount of nail shops, takeaways, and barbers. Shops shut and do not reopen. It's just a sad sorry state. It used to be a busy place. I lived here all my life and I do not like it anymore. I would rather move away."

She added: "The problem with it is it is not something the crushing housing crisis at the moment. I work in social housing. The waiting list is only growing, it's not reducing.

"It's the same picture that access to any social housing in any local authority area is that we do not have the funding to provide what is needed. We are trying the best we can with the limited resources . Unfortunately something has got to give."

This is the worry for those politicians in opposition. Labour councillor Rachel Wise wants to see the local authority build homes more widely across the borough to suit a range of different people including accessible and supported living accommodation and leisure opportunities.

She added: "If Stockport really wants to be leading, in terms of being a leader in this field of town centre regeneration, the thing that the council really has to do is to look at how the town centre can regenerate Lancashire Hill, the poorest neighbourhood in Greater Manchester because they are next to each other.

"The border is Lancashire Hill. It's on the door step. The difficult I have with that is that isn't how we building a society for everybody where everybody thrives. If we have people kept out of the progress and opportunity, that ultimately drags everybody down."

James Frizzell, who represents the area around Lancashire Hill for the Greens, said the 'phenomenal' regeneration of the town was fantastic but worried too about 'the bits that are getting left behind in all of that'. For him, the answer is more social housing and improving Lancashire Hill.

He told the LDRS: "What the administration needs to do is have a laser focus on the homes that are affordable based on people's incomes at this moment. You and I both know the cost of living is far outstripping people's wages.

"The days of luxuries are gone for good. It's hand to mouth stuff and some are making sacrifices more and more. Some that were doing better are now not doing so well. That is the reality."

For the council leader, Coun Roberts said there was money going into local high streets like Edgeley and in time, the regeneration will spread further and further out. He said: "We can't make changes over night. These things take time. I think there is the opportunity there for that change to come."

However he added: "It's incumbent on us that they do feel like they are benefitting from the work that is going on."

Cllr Roberts told the LDRS: "I think some of the changes when people say they want to see this this or what to see that, some of it is not necessarily in the council's gift what they are asking for.

"It's not for a council to say that there should be a baker there, a greengrocer there. We are not playing Sin City and some people forget that.

"So much of what we are seeing in our brilliant independent district centres, it's one of the things that makes Stockport really strong is those differences.

"I think the regeneration we are seeing in the town is the opportunity we have to make that difference. Things can always be better. I am a big believer in that."

While Lancashire Hill will not be part of the area covered by the MDC, Coun Roberts said they were exploring every possible avenue to get the government funding needed to improve lives there, adding: "Just think what we could achieve if people gave us the money to do it that ultimately is the challenge that we keep coming back to."