Manchester City Council launches development company This City

The ‘This City’ housing development company, wholly owned by Manchester City Council, was formally launched last week to accelerate the number of new homes in Manchester.

The company will focus on providing high quality, low-carbon homes, delivering a mix of accessible rent and market properties, with the latter helping to subsidise the development of homes priced to be affordable for people in receipt of housing benefits.

A development site on Rodney Street in Ancoats has been unveiled as the first project by the new company, with Wates Construction appointed as the lead contractor responsible for delivering the 128 apartments and townhouses – 30% of which will be for accessible rent.

All future This City developments will include a minimum of 20% accessible rented homes on completion, which will be available at or below the Local Housing Allowance level.

Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: ‘Manchester has some ambitious and radical plans to see more homes built in our city that everyone can afford. Every resident in our city should have access to a good quality home and Manchester is leading the way in building our own homes as part of this.

‘Seeing more homes at accessible rent is a real challenge in the city centre, so we’re building our own. That’s why I’m really pleased to launch This City with the development plan for Rodney Street, helping to meet demand for accessible rent homes.

‘There is a lot more to come from This City. We will grow the potential of the company to deliver around 500 properties each year, using Council-owned land to maximise our investment in new housing. And we hope to bring forward new sites quickly – so watch this space.’

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and employment, added: ‘Our bottom line is that everyone in this city deserves a safe, secure and decent home, and as Manchester continues to grow, we also need to increase the number of affordable rent and low carbon homes for Manchester people on lower incomes.

‘This City will help us meet this demand, giving us a development vehicle for the first time to deliver the homes the city needs on our own terms.’

In related news, a plan for the regeneration of the Smethwick to Birmingham Corridor is going to cabinet for approval this week, providing a strategy for housing, transport and local heritage as the area is redeveloped.

Photo by William McCue