Manchester awarded £3 million to build hundreds of ‘affordable’ homes

Manchester has been awarded £3 million in funding to build ‘affordable’ housing  across the city and surrounding areas.

The funding will go towards the building of 210 homes across the city centre as well sites in north and east Manchester – with 119 of the new homes to be considered ‘affordable’ housing.

The housing projects aim to bring brownfield land back into use with 81 of the new builds being part of Manchester City Council’s ‘Project 500’ scheme.

In partnership with the city’s housing provider, Project 500 aims to make small portions of land available in a bid to increase the number of affordable homes.

The project has an initial view to build 500 homes but wants to exceed that number in the coming years.

All homes built under Project 500 are to be capped at the Manchester Living Rent, which is set at or below the Local Housing Allowance level (LHA).

This ensures as many people as possible are able to find housing options they can afford, including people receiving housing benefits.

Manchester City Council has confirmed areas including Ancoats, Beswick, Harpurhey, Crumpsall, Gorton and Higher Blackely will all be receiving a portion of the funding.

The developments confirmed are:

• Rodney Street (Ancoats and Beswick) – £1,677,862 (129 homes inclusive of 38 affordable)
• Parkmount Road (Harpurhey) – £467,178 (24 affordable homes)
• Parkhill Avenue (Crumpsall) – £375,000 (25 affordable homes)
• Blackwin Street (Gorton) – £160,000 (seven affordable homes)
• Plant Hill Road (Higher Blackley) – £175,000 (12 affordable homes)
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A further 13 affordable homes are to be built on Jurby Avenue, Higher Blackley. These will be social rent specialist ‘Extra Care’ homes for people living with dementia – and given a total of £215,280 in funds.

In June, Manchester City Council launched a new Housing Strategy, which committed to building 10,000 new affordable homes in the next 10 years to meet growing demand for quality housing across the city.  

Cllr Gavin White, who is Manchester City Council’s executive member for Housing and Development, said: “Developing this land and bringing it back into use is an important part of our plans to deliver 36,000 new homes in the next 10 years

“Brownfield land is often more challenging to develop, and we have lots of smaller plots that are financially difficult to build on.

“But this funding will support our partnership with the city’s registered providers to build on these smaller plots of land as part of our Project 500 initiative – delivering the affordable homes our residents need.”