Housing providers’ £2.5bn boost for region with plans for 18,000 new homes
Greater Manchester is to get a £2.5bn housing boost over the next five years with plans to develop 18,000 new homes across the city region.
The plans, revealed by the Greater Manchester Housing Providers partnership (GMHP), are a significant contribution to the target of delivering 50,000 new affordable homes by 2037.
More than half the new homes being developed will be for social and affordable rent. Significant investment is also going towards developing new homes for people with support needs, and homes for low-cost homeownership, such as shared ownership and rent-to-buy.
A proportion of developments will also be for market sale, generating extra revenue that the housing providers will reinvest into new homes and local services.
In addition, 10 GMHP members, along with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), have invested £32m to create a ‘profit for purpose’ development joint venture called Hive Homes, which has its own plans to develop 700 homes for market sale in the next few years.
Revenue from Hive Homes will be distributed directly back to the investors to be reinvested in new affordable housing and services for customers.
GMHP’s investment in new homes will also bring additional benefits for local communities, including new training, employment, and apprenticeship opportunities. In the past two years, GMHP has created almost 200 apprenticeships directly through its members’ new-build development programmes.
Matthew Harrison, GMHP’s lead for development and chief executive of Great Places Housing Group, said: “The UK is in the grip of a housing crisis, with Greater Manchester communities badly affected by lack of housing choice. The underlying cause of this crisis is clear – there simply aren’t enough of the right type of decent, affordable homes in the right places.
“A number of GMHP members are significant developers, and collectively we are at the forefront of tackling this housing shortage. In recent years our members have developed around a third of all new homes built in Greater Manchester annually, and our plans to deliver 18,000 homes in the years ahead will ensure we continue to make a significant contribution to tackling the housing crisis in the region.”
He added: “The skills, training, and employment opportunities we’ll deliver through this growth are at the heart of GMHP’s work. As community anchor institutions, GMHP members make a significant contribution to the economic wellbeing of Greater Manchester, and our investment in new homes helps not only improve housing quality and choice, but also supports households and communities in many other ways, too.”
Paul Dennett, City Mayor of Salford and GMCA lead for housing, homelessness and infrastructure, said: “This is a really promising announcement, and we welcome the commitment of Greater Manchester Housing Providers to deliver more than half of these new homes for social and affordable rent.
“There is an urgent need for investment in safe, decent, affordable and accessible housing to address the crisis we’re seeing here and around the country. We need to scale up significantly the delivery of net zero social rented homes to put us on the best possible footing to address the housing crisis and climate crisis, and avoid the need to retrofit new buildings later down the line.”
