Housing company to build 500 affordable homes per year

Manchester City Council’s new authority-owned housing development company is seeking to build 500 affordable homes per year.

With the aim of increasing the number of multi-tenure, sustainable, high-quality homes for lower-income families, the company will adopt the council’s ambitious home building target that will see at least 32,000 homes built in the city between 2015 and 2025 - 6,400 of which (or 20 per cent) will be affordable to Manchester residents.

Forecasting suggests that without intervention the city may fall short of its affordable homes target, despite various successful partnerships with the city’s registered providers where council land is invested for affordable housing. A local housing delivery company will ensure a continued supply of affordable homes at or below Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels, with the potential to deliver 2,000 homes (500 per year) up to 2025 - helping the council to meet its affordable homes delivery target by 2025.

Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said “Our affordable housing target is ambitious by design because we know that as our population continues to grow that we will need to match that growth with high-quality new homes that Manchester people can afford.

“It’s vital that we innovate and change the way we think about housing delivery to ensure we can meet demand and the needs of our residents. Bringing an element of affordable housing development in-house will help us meet the housing needs of Manchester people using our own land and with a clear focus on sustainable, low-cost, zero-carbon housing.”