Town hall in deal to buy new homes
COUNCIL SNAPS UP 20 PROPERTIES FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING DRIVE
MANCHESTER council is to buy up 20 brand new Taylor Wimpey houses to sell on to social tenants as part of a £15m affordable housing drive for the north of the city.
The town hall is to acquire the homes at the Booth Hall development in Blackley to market under shared ownership to people on low incomes.
Its plan forms part of moves to deliver 135 new affordable units across north Manchester.
Manchester town hall is to borrow £10m in total, boosted by £5m in funds from the government’s Homes and Communities Agency – in a programme that will mainly provide new social housing to replace homes sold under Right to Buy. But, unusually, it will also buy up a cluster of newbuilds to sell on.
Some £2m of its borrowing will be used to acquire the homes off Charlestown Road in Blackley – which are on the open market for an average of £200,000 – for less than £120,000 each, although it remains unclear what deal has been struck with the developer to allow such a cheap purchase.
A further 25 homes will also be built for shared ownership using a combination of council borrowing and HCA money, on sites yet to be announced.
Meanwhile, 90 more homes will be built for social rent by the council’s provider Northwards, intended to replace houses bought up under the Right to Buy scheme.
Six ‘in-fill’ sites across Harpurhey, Moston and Cheetham would provide a total of 40 homes. All are said to have been tricky to develop previously due to issues with the land, such as underlying utilities pipes or contamination, but government cash is now expected to make that possible.
The sites are on Tarvington Close and Barnstaple Drive in Cheetham, Douglas Street and Rudd Street in Harpurhey and Faversham Street in Moston. A further 50 Northwards homes will be built on sites yet to be identified.
Deputy council leader Bernard Priest said the plans ‘fulfil a definite requirement for high quality, affordable homes’ in the city, adding: “We know demand is far outstripping supply, so it is important that we can use as many funding opportunities as possible to help deliver the homes people need at a price they can afford.”