City Council housing strategy showing progress on provision of affordable homes

A report which went to Manchester City Council’s Economy and Regeneration scrutiny committee this week shows the early impact of its ambitious housing strategy – where more affordable homes have been built in the past year than at any time in the last decade, the council said.

It launched the new housing strategy in the summer of 2022 with the aim of making sure the city was building the right homes in the right places to meet demand – creating diverse, sustainable and long-lasting communities.

As Manchester’s population continues to grow at pace, the council and its partners are working hard to meet demand for quality housing of all types – including significant investment in affordable housing – and in every part of the city.

The strategy focuses on key areas, including increasing the number of affordable homes – alongside more homes of all types across the city – working to end homelessness, tackle inequalities and create neighbourhoods where people want to live, and ensure housing in the city plays its part on Manchester’s journey to zero carbon.

The Housing Strategy is ambitious and increasing the supply of affordable housing is possible through close collaboration with Manchester Housing Providers Partnership (MHPP) and private sector partners, said the council.

The strategy runs through to 2032 with the target of building 36,000 new homes – 10,000 of which will be affordable. And of those, 3,000 will be affordable homes in the city centre.

So far, 1,018 affordable homes – including 259 social homes – have been completed as part of the strategy, representing 10.2% of the 10-year total.

Silk Street townhouses

The number of affordable homes built in the past year (603) marks the largest annual delivery of affordable housing in a decade, with another record year forecast for the next financial year.

It was envisaged that through the strategy home building would increase each year through an increasing pipeline of developments – including 1,700 affordable homes that are currently on site and a further 1,500 with planning permission. The council expects to at least meet the 10,000 affordable homes target by 2032 as planned.

In total, across all tenures, 4,925 homes have been completed since the beginning of the strategy period – including 3,018 homes built in 2023/24 alone, which represents a 58% increase from 2022/23 and shows the upward trend year-on-year that will see building step up to meet the headline targets up to 2032.

There are also 13,800 homes currently under construction in the city and more than 8,300 homes with planning permission, which shows a healthy pipeline of home building in the coming years. Of these, the expectation is that 11,000 of these homes will be completed by 2027, amounting to almost half of the target delivered by the mid-way point of the strategy period.

The number of people in Temporary Accommodation has fallen by more than six per cent since March 2023, following a range of interventions by the council, including changes to the social housing allocations policy.

Since the beginning of the housing strategy period, the council has introduced the Manchester Living Rent (MLR). This is a level of rent that is capped at the Local Housing Allowance rate (LHA), which makes sure that new affordable homes are genuinely affordable to residents claiming benefits.

All affordable rented homes built by Registered Housing Providers in the city are capped at the MLR. And at least 20% of homes that are built as part of the council’s This City housing company will be capped at this rate, which will help to diversify the housing offer in these locations. The first This City development is currently on site in Ancoats where 30% of the homes are capped at the MLR.

In the past year, 139 three-bed or larger homes have been completed to close the demand gap for larger family homes. However, increasing demand remains a challenge. Current building has met nine per cent of the target to build 3,000 larger homes and this will also be increased through the lifespan of the strategy – including 162 affordable three-plus bed homes as part of the council’s Project 500 programme.

This City No1 Ancoats Green topping out

However, the council has also supported 132 households to ‘right size’ in the past year, which allows people in larger family homes to move into more manageable properties. This, in turn, frees up larger homes and allows residents to lower their bills and counteract the rise in cost of living. This includes 37 right size moves into the council’s Silk Street development in Newton Heath.

To improve the quality of private rented homes and the neighbourhoods around them, there are currently two live Selective Licensing schemes in the city that encompass 2,090 private rented sector homes (PRS). And consultation is currently under way for a further nine areas across six wards that will include 1,900 more PRS properties.

Fifty eight per cent of new affordable homes delivered in the past year (349 homes) were low or zero carbon and, therefore, the city is on target to meet the ambition to increase the number of new low carbon affordable homes from 20% to 50% by 2025.

However, there remains significant challenges related to retrofitting older properties with costs rising by more than 50% since the beginning of the strategy period alone.

Even so, more than 720 Manchester Housing Provider Partnership (MHPP) properties – homes managed by housing providers in the city – have been improved from EPC D or below to C or above in the last year.

Since the beginning of the strategy period, 249 homes have been improved with a further 750 to be completed by September 2025 using the government-funded DESNZ Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Council leader, Cllr Bev Craig, said: “In 2022 we set an ambitious new strategy and we are seeing more quality homes – and crucially affordable housing – being built, but we are also seeing strides in low carbon investment, which ultimately saves our residents money, we are seeing fewer people in temporary accommodation, and we are improving existing homes and neighbourhoods to be places our residents want to live.

This City No1 Ancoats Green

“Two years in and we still have a lot of challenges and work to do to support our residents into the homes they need and deserve, but we are seeing good progress in key areas that will make a real difference to the lives of Manchester people.”

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said: “We were necessarily ambitious with this housing strategy to meet the demand for quality housing in our city – a challenge that will continue as our population grows further. What we can see already is the early signs that we are delivering on the targets we set two years ago.

“More affordable homes have been built in the last year in Manchester than any year in the last decade and we will see this grow year on year through to 2032. And we hope that with more government support we can exceed these ambitions.”