£115m investment in affordable, green homes on brownfield sites across Greater Manchester

• £115m set to be invested in developing 92 brownfield sites across Greater Manchester
• Leaders asked to approve £71.8m in year two and up to £57.5m in year three, unlocking over 7,800 new homes across all ten metropolitan boroughs
• This is second tranche of the £150m Brownfield Housing Fund, announced as part of the 2023 trailblazer devolution deal
• Over half of homes would be affordable and 79% of schemes are set to be built to Future Homes Standard

HOUSEBUILDING in Greater Manchester is to be further boosted by the next phase of a £150m Brownfield Housing Fund, which is set to deliver more than 7,800 new homes across the city-region. 

At a meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Friday 26 January, leaders will be asked to approve an allocation of £115m to developers, social housing providers and councils, to support a further 92 schemes across their boroughs. Work is scheduled to begin no later than December 2025.

All brownfield sites identified for development were assessed on their viability and how they support the principles of the Greater Manchester Strategy, including the provision of affordable housing and the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2038.

The funding is the second tranche of the three-year £150m brownfield programme, announced as part of Greater Manchester’s 2023 trailblazer devolution deal, which set a delivery target of 7,000 new homes by 2025/26. If approved, the new schemes would see Greater Manchester exceed those housing targets, with total funding allocated for up to 11,000 homes across the city-region.

Councillor Ged Cooney, Greater Manchester Lead for Housing, said:

“This latest £115m boost to housebuilding through the Brownfield Housing Fund will unlock good, affordable homes, support skilled construction jobs and apprenticeships, and open routes for further investment.

“We will continue to use our devolved powers and funding to prioritise brownfield land for development, working together to exceed our targets for delivering the new homes that we know Greater Manchester needs.”

The prioritised funding commits £71.8m in year two and up to £57.5m in year three, unlocking more than 7,800 new homes across the 10 boroughs. Year one funding, announced last year, allocated £51.1m to the building of 3,900 new homes.

Of the 7,800 homes planned for the second and third phases of this scheme, over half - almost 4,000 homes - would be affordable. Seventy-nine per cent of schemes would be built to Future Homes Standard and five of the proposed schemes would aim to build homes which operate with zero or negative carbon emissions, in line with the GM Truly Affordable Net Zero Homes (TANZ) Task Force definitions. A variety of approaches to reduce carbon and energy impacts are being proposed, including using passive build techniques. GMCA will work with partners to achieve optimum performance for these projects and to capture learning as we drive toward the net zero requirements set out in our Places for Everyone plan.

The schemes will support Greater Manchester’s economic growth and boost opportunities available to city-region residents, by providing jobs in the construction industry and skilled apprenticeships, and bringing additional investment into the region.

Council leaders will also be asked to sign-off on a loan of £9.6m from the GM Housing Investment Loans Fund to the South Manchester-based housing developer Britannia Group. The loan will support the development of forty-one apartments and nineteen townhouses on a brownfield site in Victoria Park, Manchester. If approved, the developer will be required to sell twelve of the homes at a discount of at least twenty percent to key workers or those on low incomes.

Article Published: 25/01/2024 13:45 PM