Manchester City Council is to dispose of 27 brownfield plots in a bid to open up the development of new affordable homes.
First proposed in 2019, Manchester City Council’s Project 500 aims to provide affordable homes on underused brownfield sites around the city.
The first phase of the project will see 378 homes delivered in the north and east.
Project 500 forms part of the council’s new housing strategy, which sets out an ambition to deliver 10,000 affordable properties over the next decade.
The council is seeking executive approval to dispose of the freeholds of the sites to companies within the Manchester Housing Providers’ Partnership (MHPP).
The partnership comprises One Manchester, Southway Housing Trust, Great Places Housing Association, Mosscare St Vincents Housing Group, The Guinness Partnership, and Irwell Valley Housing Association, and Jigsaw Homes.
The homes set to delivered will be 100% affordable housing, with 89% available for social rent or Manchester Living Rent.
The remainder will be available for shared ownership and rent to buy.
‘A real challenge’
Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for Housing and Development, said: “We know that building affordable homes in the current economic climate is a real challenge, but we need to do everything we can to increase the number of genuinely affordable, low-carbon homes available to our residents.
“This is an ambitious approach to affordable home building, which draws on the collective energies of the city’s affordable housing providers, working in close partnership with the city council to bring underused, brownfield land into use and build the homes that Manchester people need.”
The developments:
- Guinness – 79 homes across five sites in Charlestown, Harpurhey, and Clayton and Openshaw
- Mosscare St Vincents – 48 homes off Heatherdale Drive and Tamerton Drive in Cheetham Hill, with a further 123 homes across four sites in Cheetham Hill and Harpurhey
- One Manchester – 57 homes across six sites, four of which are in Moston
- Great Places – 47 homes spilt between a pair of sites in Crumpsall and Higher Blackley
- Irwell Valley Homes – 25 homes across two sites in Higher Blackley
- Southway – 15 homes across three sites in Gorton and Abbey Hey and Didsbury East
- Jigsaw – 10 homes each in Moston and Harpurhey
A further two sites in Harpurhey that are earmarked for 12 homes in total have yet to be assigned to a housing association.
Image: Shutterstock/Joseph D’Ambra
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