A report going to the Council’s Executive committee this week (Weds 14 October) charts record numbers of affordable homes being delivered in wards across Manchester to meet city-wide demand.
Data broken down by Council ward shows how affordable housing investment in communities – particularly in north and east Manchester and Wythenshawe – is helping to meet an ambitious target to help deliver at least 10,000 social rent, Council and genuinely affordable homes up to 2032.
Now nearly halfway through the Housing Strategy period from 2022, when combining affordable completions with developments on site and alongside housing in the future pipeline, the city is already close to securing development to meet the 10,000-home target.
Taken alone, major affordable development both completed and planned for Miles Platting and Newton Heath (1,289 homes), Cheetham (1,070 homes) and Ancoats and Beswick (806 homes) shows a healthy pipeline of projects in communities with high demand for affordable housing.
Substantial regeneration programmes will also further bolster the city’s housing investment outlook, with key schemes in Holt Town and Strangeways still to come online, while further significant housing investment is continuing at Victoria North and in our District Centres across the city including Wythenshawe town centre.
In the last year, Manchester City Council reported record numbers of completions where 4,766 homes of all types and tenures were finished – contributing to the Housing Strategy target to build 36,000 homes up to 2032.
In the same year, the city saw more affordable homes built than at any point since the late 1990s with 901 affordable tenure homes completed – of which around half (439) were for social rent.
Manchester is also bucking the national trend for affordable housing starts recording an increase of 12% since 2022/23.
And the city centre also saw the largest ever delivery of affordable in the city’s history over the last year with 259 completions, helping to diversify the city centre housing market and help more Manchester people have more choice about where they live.
Read the report and appendices in full
Cllr Garry Bridges, Leader of Manchester City Council, said:
“Since becoming Leader only a few weeks ago, it’s clear that I have inherited not just a healthy housing pipeline, but also a real vision for building truly affordable homes, and in communities that our residents want to live in. This is a crucial point – that we are delivering homes to meet demand where families can be close together, nearby to friends and support networks.
And while we are on target to meet our ambitious target to build 10,000 affordable homes up to 2032 - I want to push our ambition in the latter half of our strategy and build more than 1,000 affordable every year.
“We know the housing crisis is still hitting families hard – and we know one of the only ways out of it is to build at pace to meet demand. It’s encouraging that the conversation nationally about investing heavily in social housing chimes with our vision, and I look forward to working closely with Government around funding to help continue building the homes our residents need.”
Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said:
“We are coming up to the halfway point of our Housing Strategy and it’s really heartening that despite the challenges in building new housing at the moment – let alone genuinely affordable housing – we have a pipeline of developments that is helping us to meet our target to deliver at least 10,000 social rent, Council and genuinely affordable homes by 2032 in every ward of our city.
“Our approach has been to build homes that help to create sustainable neighbourhoods that retain long-lasting communities by helping families and individuals to stay in their local area, while also creating a real housing choice across the city – including the city centre.
“This is backed up by innovative approaches, such as Right Sizing, that helps older people move into a smaller property that is more suitable to their needs – helping them to stay in social rent homes in their home area, while also freeing up larger family homes, which also takes pressure off the housing register.
“This is not easy – as we’re seeing in towns and cities across the UK. But we are meeting the challenge head on and delivering our Housing Strategy. We are determined to make sure everyone in Manchester has access to a safe, secure and quality home.”