Twenty eight compete over every affordable property in city

Demand for affordable housing is so high in Salford that 28 people are bidding for every property that becomes available.

And that’s despite another new 461 affordable properties having been made available in the last year.

That’s the latest update from Salford City Council’s affordable housing programme which aims to deliver a mixture of social rented, affordable rented and shared ownership homes.

The report says that although 17% of new homes provided in Salford last year by developers, landlords and housing associations were affordable – one of the best rates in Greater Manchester – the city still needs 760 new affordable homes each year to meet need.

Later this year, deputy city mayor Cllr John Merry will launch Salford City Council’s plans to build the first council houses in the city for a generation.

Cllr Merry said: “We have set up a company called Derive as a wholly owned subsidiary of the council. Initially we will be buying existing homes off the shelf to meet demand quickly. They will be available this year – and then we will be buying and building more in the future.

“We’re starting from scratch, but we aim to build up the company’s capacity over time to provide larger and larger numbers of homes to meet the housing needs of people in Salford.

“In the absence of any Government support, we will be kick-starting Derive with £2m of Section 106 money from developers, other funds from the council and self-financing the affordable housing by selling some of the houses and letting others at market rents.”

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