Partnership launched to support Manchester’s housing ambitions (UK)

A strengthened alliance between the HCA and Manchester City Council has been launched at a networking event at the city’s Central Library. The partnership, Manchester Place, will create a pipeline of development-ready sites to help the city meet its ambitious target of creating 55,000 new homes by 2027 as set out in the Manchester Residential Growth Prospectus. It will work with investors, such as Manchester Life, developers and others who wish to support high quality housing across the city to ensure there are sufficient opportunities.
Forecasts suggest that the city has the potential to generate an extra 50,000 jobs by 2023, and that by 2030 the population will exceed 600,000. Ensuring the right number of homes in high quality neighbourhoods is a key challenge. Key tasks for Manchester Place include working with landowners to get sites ready for development, assembling land where necessary, and using the land resources and market intelligence of both the Council and HCA to produce a co-ordinated response to government initiatives encouraging house-building. Receipts from land sales will be recycled for housing and associated developments supporting growth.
An annual investment plan will identify priority areas for public and private sector investment which can unlock residential growth. These will be designated as Investment Action Areas, with Ancoats and New Islington one of the first.
Deborah McLaughlin, NW Executive Director of the Homes and Communities Agency, said: “Manchester Place captures the strong working relationship that has developed between the City Council and the Homes and Communities Agency, and is a great demonstration of how we can jointly use pioneering investment models to stimulate growth. By working closely in collaboration, we are ensuring that we support local strategic priorities – Manchester’s population is growing enormously quickly, and this partnership will accelerate the supply of much-needed housing in the city.”
Source: HomesandCommunities