Affordable housing zones in central North Manchester, Clayton, Beswick and Wythenshawe Town Centre were discussed at yesterday’s Council’s Resources and Governance Scrutiny Committee at Manchester Council.
Members were updated on Manchester’s Affordable Housing Programme that will ensure more than 2,200 homes by March 2021 through a £250m programme funded through a variety of sources including Homes England grant funding, Council borrowing and land or property sales and Registered Providers.
Some 548 homes are already being constructed with a further 1,711 in the pipeline. These are a mix of affordable rent, shared ownership, affordable rent to buy and social rent.
four Housing Affordability Zones have been approved where the Council owns a significant amount of land which can be used to help accelerate affordable housing being brought forward. In each of the zones the Council will be working with a registered social housing provider to help bring schemes forward.
It is expected that these zones – in central North Manchester, Clayton, Beswick and Wythenshawe Town Centre – will boost building with an additional 2,000 affordable homes over the next five years on top of those already in the pipeline and planned elsewhere in the City.
In addition, up to 500 existing homes across the city will be purchased, refurbished and made available for low cost rent or ownership through the Housing Affordability Fund and support from housing provider partners. These will be mostly, but not exclusively, within the four Housing Affordability Zones.
The Council is also working with partners to develop new financial products which enable people on lower incomes to access new and existing homes, an example of which will be reported to the Council’s Executive next week for approval.
Councillor Bernard Priest, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “We know that affordable housing is a real concern for Mancunians and a subject of considerable debate and some speculation. We want to reassure people that affordable housing is a very high priority for us at the Council and something we are actually doing rather than just talking about it. Last week we broke ground on 40 new council homes in the city and we have many more in the pipeline.
“We are overseeing the delivery of thousands of new decent affordable homes and will continue to make the best use of our resources to maximise this, as well as continuing to maximise section 106 planning contributions which help pay for lots of public infrastructure works as well as affordable housing.
