First phase of Manchester housing project launched

Manchester City Council is beginning the first phase of its Project 500 housing project to provide sustainable and affordable homes to residents.

The project will start with 378 new low-carbon affordable homes being built across 27 sites, concentrated in the north and east of the city, with further homes being built in future to reach the 500 target.

Houses will be built on council-owned brownfield sites across the city, in partnership with registered housing providers in Manchester.

The city is currently struggling with a housing crisis, with a recent report showing the temporary accommodation system was nearly at ‘crisis point.’

Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said: ‘We know that building affordable homes in the current economic climate is a real challenge, but we need to do everything we can to increase the number of genuinely affordable, low carbon homes available to our residents. 

‘This is an ambitious approach to affordable home building, which draws on the collective energies of the city’s affordable housing providers, working in close partnership with the Council to bring underused, brownfield land into use and build the homes that Manchester people need. 

‘This is only the start of the initiative and I look forward to future phases of the programme coming online in the coming months.’

30% of the homes will be available at social rent, making them affordable to those on housing benefits, while 11% of the homes will also be available for shared ownership or rent to buy.

59% will be let at Manchester Living Rent, capping rents at the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate set by the government to make housing affordable to those on housing benefits.

The project is part of Manchester City Council’s new Housing Strategy laid out in June, which aims to build 10,000 affordable new homes over the next 10 years to combat the housing crisis.

Photo by Josh Taylor