Manchester council increases housebuilding target by 60%

Manchester council wants to ramp up the number of homes being delivered across the city over the next six years from 20,000 to 32,000 units.

In a report presented to the borough’s economy scrutiny committee today the council said it wanted to increase its pipeline of affordable homes between 2015 and 2025 by 60% in order to meet what it called “exceptional demand”.

Of the new target of 32,000 homes at least 6,400 – or 20% – would be affordable, split between social and affordable housing and shared ownership.

The council said existing land could deliver half of the affordable homes.

A number of projects were already underway, including affordable housing schemes in north Manchester and Brunswick, while housing providers would work with the council on what it called Project 500 to deliver 500 homes on smaller sites, with around 25 per plot.

Manchester was considering working with housing provider partners to buy back council homes which had been sold to residents through Right to Buy, adding it would submit a full outline of its proposals to a future executive committee session.

The potential for community-led housing was also being looked at, the council said, and it expected to tap into existing government support for three such schemes it was trialling.

Suzanne Richards, Manchester city council’s housing and regeneration executive, said the city’s affordable housing targets were “ambitious, and they need to be.

“We will work closely with our housing partners across the city and Homes England to ensure we can make them a reality.”

The council said the city’s population was expected to grow to more 650,000 by 2026, with 100,000 more people forecast to move into the city centre.

A third of Manchester’s 204,000 homes were social homes, it added.