Positive News roundup

£1 billion Public Investment Fund for Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester Council is launching a £1 billion public investment fund to support commercial and residential development locally.

The funding will focus on delivering key residential projects, prioritising affordable social housing. It will also provide investment that is set to unlock major commercial and office space and significant employment and skills opportunities for local people.

The first £400m investment will deliver nearly 3,000 new homes, 22,000 new jobs and 2 million square feet of employment space.

Some of the projects include transforming Kendals department store into a commercial space and building 15,000 new homes in the Victoria North development.

The fund is a big step for "good growth" in Manchester, driven by local community control, which hopes to help people "overcome barriers to employment".

Dynamic pricing set to avoid mens EUROs 2028 amid new government legislation

The UK government has announced a crack down on "industrial scale" ticket touting, meaning people will be able to buy tickets for the upcoming 2028 EUROs without having to worry about dynamic pricing.

The UK and Ireland was announced as the hosts of UEFA EURO 2028, with the event set to draw over 3 million visitors to the nation, including over 300,000 to the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, which will be the host to five matches.

Manchester is also the location of England's opening match of the tournament.

Plans for new rules announced on 19 November are set to make it illegal to resell tickets for live events above the original cost, saving fans £112 million a year.

The council emphasised that the city will be working with partners to maximise the wider social benefits of hosting the tournament to the local community, ensuring a "lasting legacy".

Key elements of the plan include investment in grassroots sports clubs, creating safer places to play and ensuring that every girl has equal access to football, continuing the legacy from the Women's EUROs 2022 that was also held in the city.

The projected economic impact of hosting the event on Manchester is over £200 million.

CyanLines: 100-Mile walk/Cycle Network in Manchester and Salford

A new initiative, CyanLines, is launching a network of connected green and blue spaces across Manchester and Salford.

The aim is to link parks, rivers, canals and walking/cycling routes to promote biodiversity and active travel. Over 100 miles of the network is in its planning stages.

The initiative is a positive vision for urban nature and sustainable transport across the city, with Labour council leader Bev Craig adding that she is "on a mission to make our city greener".

UK Government announces England's first ever Men's Health Strategy

Launched on International Men's Day, the landmark strategy will see men and boys across the country benefiting from tailored healthcare and support, helping them to live longer, healthier lives.

The strategy includes £3.6 million over the next 3 years in suicide prevention projects for middle-aged men in communities across England where men are at most risk of taking their lives. These include some of the most deprived areas in the country.

The focus on suicide prevention sees the Department of Health and Social Care establish a partnership with the Premier League's Together Against Suicide Initiative, which looks to tackle stigma around men's mental health.

£3 million is also being invested into community-based men's health programmes, such as the UK Men's Sheds Association, which has opened over a thousand spaces around the country that offer safe and welcoming spaces for men to "connect, create and chat" within their communities.

More than 20 are open in the Greater Manchester area alone. Locations for the sheds can be found here: https://menssheds.org.uk/find-a-shed/

UN Launches First Governance Toolkit for Extreme Heat Risk

The UN has released a new framework and toolkit to help countries manage the risks of extreme heat.

This is part of a broader global effort to coordinate heat-risk management, especially in vulnerable regions, and to make heat resilience more systematic.

According to a new analysis by Climate Action Tracker, if countries follow through on three major promises (tripling renewables, doubling energy efficiency and cutting methane), global heating could be reduced by roughly 0.9c from current projections.

If all of these measures were achieved by G20 countries alone, global greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 18bn tonnes in 2035, which is enough to half the rate of global heating by 2040. This would bring the world close to meeting the targets made as part of the 2015 Paris Climate agreement.

A potentially huge climate win, the framework gives the world "hope of avoiding climate breakdown".

Alongside this, at COP30, philanthropes like the Rockefeller Foundation, Welcome Trust and the Gates Foundation pledged £300 million to fund climate-health research. This money will go towards studying and addressing health risks from climate change, particularly in regions most vulnerable.

World Bank figures show a big rise in female-held bank accounts globally

According to a new World Bank report, 73% of women in low and middle income countries now have a bank account, a rise from 50% in 2015.

The World Bank added that this points to a "remarkable transformation" that serves as a "hopeful sign".

With around 80% of women in developing economies now owning a mobile phone, the rise in digital bank accounts has been significant for women to overcome the barriers that they previously faced.

The World Bank stresses that "the work continues to ensure every woman who wants a financial account has access to one-and can use it to her full advantage".