GMCA fund's £66 million boost for home-building in Greater Manchester

The first £66.3m of loan funding has been awarded from a £300m fund to boost housing in Greater Manchester.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) approved loan funding totalling £42.564m for five new schemes in Manchester, Oldham, Salford and Trafford at its latest meeting. It follows the award of £23.731m for a further Manchester scheme.

Together the schemes will deliver more than 1,000 new homes. While the majority are apartments, the Fund is working with the Homes and Communities Agency to bring forward more schemes focussed on houses and there are around 550 houses still in the pipeline.

The schemes are:

• Manchester: Belgravia Living Ltd, Tarrif Street £9.741m – 91 apartments
• Oldham: Roman Investments (Boundary Park Ltd), £1.45m – 20 three-bed semi detached homes
• Salford: FICM Ltd, Trinity Way (Salford), £17.312m – 380 apartments
• Trafford: Rowlinson Developments Ltd, Pomona Wharf (Salford), £10.3m – 164 apartments
• Trafford: THT Developments Ltd, Woodfield Road (Trafford), £3.76m – 9 town houses and 32 apartments

A loan of £23.731m to LQ Developments for 301 apartments and 6 town houses in Water Street, Manchester, was approved in July.

Councillor Sue Derbyshire, chair of GMCA’s Housing and Planning Commission, said: “Ensuring that Greater Manchester’s housing supply meets its economic growth and the needs of the area’s people is fundamental to the region’s future.

“I am pleased that, by providing loan funding for these schemes, GMCA can play a crucial role in getting them started.”

The Greater Manchester Housing Fund was created as part of the region’s devolution agenda and is a cornerhouse of the ambition to create a new wave of high quality homes. Housing supply continues to lag behind Greater Manchester’s current strong economic and jobs growth and needs to accelerate to accommodate a growing population.

Loan funding is fully recoverable and it is estimated that the money could be used 2.5 times over the fund’s life, delivering a total residential development value of £1.5bn.