Salford City Council’s ground-breaking council-led housing scheme took another leap forward today after a further 177 homes were given the green light.
Plans for 132 homes and 45 apartments, with more than 50% to be available as affordable housing, were approved by the council’s planning and transportation panel for the site of the former Harrop Fold High School off Longshaw Drive in Little Hulton this morning.
The development is part of the 417 new council and community-owned homes with planning approval that will form Salford’s largest council housing scheme for 50 years and today’s approval comes after plans for 68 homes in Weaste and 45 properties in Charlestown moved forward in the last month. These are the first sites that are included in the council’s aspirations to deliver 3000 homes over the next decade.
In total, 92 of the homes will be transferred to Dérive RP – a registered provider being set up and part of the Dérive Group, the local housing company wholly owned by Salford City Council – with the rest of the properties to be made available for the private rented sector or for sale.
Deputy City Mayor Councillor Tracy Kelly, Lead Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration said: “This is another significant milestone for the council and Dérive as we continue to progress the largest council housing scheme that Salford has seen in 50 years.
“This development will help us regenerate Little Hulton which has a considerable shortfall of affordable housing and will replenish an extremely overgrown site that has been crying out for a development like this for some time.
“Not only will this site provide just under a hundred properties for residents on our waiting list but all of the houses will be highly energy-efficient as we target carbon neutrality for the city by 2038.”
The Harrop Fold High School relocated in 2008 with all redundant buildings demolished the following year with the site becoming extremely overgrown over the last decade. The council is committed to ensuring biodiversity improvements in the community and to replant trees and vegetation lost from the site at a rate of two to one.
