Over 500 New Homes Will Be Built in Manchester Through the Brownfield Housing Fund

The BHF (Brownfield Housing Fund) is a national fund of £400m established to support home building on brownfield sites to accelerate home building across the country. The second tranche of the BHF – via GMCA – is made up of five new home sites in Manchester, signalling an increase in affordable homes investment in the city.

Manchester has been allocated £7.82 million in the second portion of funding from a £81.1 million funding pot for the Greater Manchester area, which will help to secure around 522 new homes, the majority of which are to be affordable housing, for Manchester people. The city has also received funding from the first tranche, which has gone towards funding new homes at New Cross Central, Mulbury City, and Viadux in the city centre.

The sites that are going to be funded include:

• Collyhurst Village, Collyhurst – 139 homes (part of the Victoria North project – formerly Northern Gateway)
• Back of Ancoats, City Centre – 275 homes
• Silk Street Development, Newton Heath – 69 Homes
• Ancoats Dispensary – 39 homes

The schemes that have been chosen across the region will have to be ready to receive their funding allocation by 30^th June this year, and if schemes are unable to progress by that point, funding will defer to a reserve list of projects to avoid any delay in delivering the aims of the overall project. The specific plans for these schemes will be developed ahead of consultation and planning permission, to ensure the most efficient completion of the plan.

Manchester has also got a further five schemes on the reserve list, which counts for an additional 1,336 new homes. The development of brownfield land is a major priority for Manchester City Council, as it will help to drive housing development on unused sites to meet the city’s ever-increasing demand for affordable housing of the highest quality. Manchester City council have personally committed to deliver at least 6,400 affordable home between 2015 and 2025. This is at least 20% of the total pipeline of 32,000 homes expected to be built during this period – and the Council is on track to exceed the affordable homes target up to 2025.

Cllr Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “This funding is very welcome. The challenges in urban areas of remediating brownfield land can impact on the financial viability of affordable housing. This funding will allow us to support the delivery of much-needed council, social and affordable housing to meet growing demand in the city.

“Everyone in this city deserves a safe, secure and affordable home and it is for this reason we have set an ambitious affordable home building target of at least 6,400 homes between 2015 and 2025. Despite the challenges of the last year, we are on track to exceed that target. This is testament to the strength of the partnerships that Manchester has built with our social landlords in the city and our commitment to back affordable house building with Council land and resources.”

Overall, it is testament to the city, council, and social landlords that Manchester will now be in a position to offer stability and security for a huge amount of people over the course of the next ten years.