Manchester secures £50m from brownfield housing fund

Manchester City Council says recent successful bids for funding from the combined authority will help it build over 1,700 “genuinely affordable” homes.All told, the £51.6m funding it has been awarded from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) Brownfield Housing Fund will help the council build 3,380 new homes in the city.The funding opens the way for the development of 31 long-term underused sites over the next two years, delivering 1,761 “affordable” homes – 52% of the overall total.The funding is part of the trailblazer agreement between the government and Greater Manchester over three years to unlock brownfield land to be used to build new housing.Councillor Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said: “We have been necessarily ambitious through our housing strategy, committing to helping to build 36,000 new homes up to 2032 – of which at least 10,000 will be genuinely affordable to Manchester people.“This is a challenge both in terms of available land and the funding necessary to build new housing at scale – but we are on course to meet these targets. However, we must be innovative and use the resources available to use.“As a post-industrial city, we have lots of brownfield sites that are sometimes difficult to develop, but this land represents a massive opportunity to deliver the homes – particularly the affordable housing our residents need. This funding is hugely welcome and we will help bring these unused areas of Manchester back into use.”Read next: Freebridge secures £40m loan to build more homesAre you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.