Salford will face a family homes crisis in years to come unless new sites are found for homes in the city, warns Salford’s lead member for Planning and Sustainable Development Councillor Derek Antrobus.
The availability of new land is constrained by the council’s determination to protect and enhance its green spaces, such as the Worsley Greenway where the Council has rejected planning applications for housing.
The warning comes in the wake of a report into the future planning of Greater Manchester suggesting that the city needs 30,000 new homes over the next 20 years to meet housing need. The city is already seeing rising property prices and huge development, private rents are soaring and waiting lists for social housing are over 8,000.
Councillor Antrobus said: “Most of those are already in the pipeline. The problem is that the vast majority are apartments at the core of the city.
“In the Ordsall ward alone there are already plans to build 16,000 new properties – that is a stunning figure and we are confident that that number will be delivered.
“Flats cater for both the younger and older end of the housing market and we believe that more families will want to live in city centre apartments in the future if we provide the right amenity space and facilities. Apartments can be an energy efficient, environmentally friendly option for large-scale housing projects and they will count for a significant part of our future development.
“But not everyone will want to live in a city centre apartment so we will still need traditional family homes. Our city-centre brownfield sites are being developed or have plans for new housing. That means the shortfall in family homes must be met by finding sites outside those areas.
“We think we need about 4,000 or so new traditional family homes on new sites on the outskirts of the city – nothing compared to the 16,000 planned in just Ordsall. But we will need to find these sites if we are not to face a housing crisis for families in the coming years.”
A recent housing supply monitoring report to Salford City Council showed that massive development was planned in just a few wards. They show most new homes are being built in Ordsall, Irwell Riverside, Broughton and Langworthy.
The wards with fewest new homes being built include Irlam, Worsley, Swinton North and Winton.
The search for sites has been narrowed by the Council’s determination to protect the most valuable of the green spaces which make up 60 per cent of the city.
City Mayor Mr Paul Dennett has this week written the Greater Manchester Combined Authority portfolio holder, Cllr Richard Farnell of Rochdale, seeking assurances that key green spaces will not be touched by new housing proposals.
In the letter he stressed the importance of restoration of Mosslands between the M62 and the Bridgewater Canal and the potential to make the rich wildlife of the moss more accessible by linking it to the proposed RHS Bridgewater.
He also set out Salford’s intention to strengthen the planning policies to protect the Worsley Greenway, create a new country park at Swinton sewage works and improve the green spaces along the River Irwell.
New planning documents which will suggest new sites for traditional family homes are expected to be published in October.
