Manchester City Council moves ahead with first phase of the Project 500 housing initiative

A report detailing the initial phase of developments that will begin the Project 500 housing plan will be heard by the executive committee next week (Weds 16 November).

The project is a housing initiative that will deliver new low carbon affordable housing on smaller Council-owned brownfield sites across the city in partnership with Manchester’s network of registered housing providers.

The first phase of the project will build 378 new low carbon affordable homes across 27 sites, predominantly in the north and east of the city. Future phases of the project will bring the number of affordable homes built to the total 500 target.

The programme will increase the number of low carbon affordable homes available to Manchester residents, while bringing underused brownfield sites back into use.

The homes will be made available for both social rent (30 per cent) and at the Manchester Living Rent (59 per cent), which means the homes will be affordable to residents on housing benefit. A portion of the homes (11 per cent) will be made available for Shared Ownership or Rent to Buy to support Manchester people towards home ownership.

Multiple publicly owned sites will be brought forward for development at the same time to improve viability, which is a key inhibitor to develop affordable housing on smaller sites.

In June, the Manchester City Council launched a new Housing Strategy, which committed to building 10,000 new affordable homes in the next 10 years to meet growing demand for quality housing across the city.

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 Council to bring underused, brownfield land into use and build the homes that Manchester people need.

“This is only the start of the initiative and I look forward to future phases of the programme coming online in the coming months.”

Judy Noah, director of development at One Manchester, commented: “By working closely together with Manchester City Council, One Manchester and six other Registered Providers, all of whom are members of the Manchester Housing Providers Partnership, are able focus their experience and resources to bring forward sustainable and affordable new homes across small sites.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily