The City Council’s executive is set to approve plans for a raft of new affordable homes across a number of sites in north Manchester when they meet on Wednesday.
Two major schemes will deliver around 135 homes which will be affordable for Manchester people.
20 new homes will be bought on the Booth Hall development in North Manchester.
The homes will be funded by a £345,000 grant from the HCA and £2.108m investment by the Council to acquire the properties, currently being developed by Taylor Wimpey, to offer for shared ownership to give people with lower income a chance to get a foot on the housing ladder.
The Council will initially try to find people living in social rented houses who can afford the shared ownership – this will in turn free up more social rented homes. People with the right levels of income who are currently on the housing register will also be sought.
A new grant application via the Continuous Market Engagement (CME) of the HCA’s Affordable Homes Programme has also approved £1.4m to help build 40 homes for affordable rent across six sites in Cheetham, Moston and Harpurhey.
The Council has also secured £2.85m from the Homes and Communities Agency’s (HCA) Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Programme (SO&AHP 2016-2021) – along with £8.4m borrowing from the Council – to help build 25 shared ownership and 50 affordable rental products, managed by Northwards Housing, and investigations are currently underway at a number of sites across North Manchester for more affordable homes.
Manchester’s affordability policy has set an ambitious target of between 1,000 and 2,000 affordable homes being available each year and commits to replacing social rented homes lost to right to buy and sales.
Cllr Bernard Priest, Deputy Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “These properties fill a definite requirement for high quality, affordable homes in the city. We know demand is far outstripping supply, so it is important that we can use as many funding opportunities as possible to help deliver the homes people need at a price they can afford.
“I’m particularly pleased that through these schemes we will be able to provide genuine routes on to the housing ladder, which is sadly missing for many people living in the city.
“We will be getting on site quickly for each of these schemes to get the homes to market and start providing much needed homes to Manchester people as quickly as possible.”
