Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig has announced a major housing strategy aimed at tackling the region's housing crisis, with a commitment to deliver 50,000 council, social and genuinely affordable homes across the city region by 2039. The plan also includes a target to have 10,000 of those homes either built, under construction, or with planning permission secured by May 2028.
The new housing drive is designed to accelerate the delivery of affordable housing, unlock stalled development sites and maximise the use of publicly owned land. A key element of the strategy is the creation of a new Public Sector Land Bank, which will identify dormant public land suitable for housing development.
The announcement was made during a visit to a new housing development in Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, where 35 social rent homes have been completed on brownfield land by Jigsaw Homes and Greenwood Builders.
The scheme received significant support from Greater Manchester, including £2.7 million through the Affordable Homes Programme and £700,000 from the Brownfield Housing Fund. The fund was established to remediate contaminated land and remove barriers preventing development.
The Mayor said that every available mechanism must be used to address the scale of the housing challenge facing the city region. Alongside brownfield regeneration, public bodies across Greater Manchester will be asked to review their land holdings and identify sites that could be released for new housing.
Funding previously provided through the Brownfield Housing Fund now forms part of Greater Manchester's £2 billion Good Growth Fund, which is supporting housing, town centre regeneration, infrastructure improvements and economic growth projects across the region.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Bev Craig said:
“Everyone in Greater Manchester should have the security of a good home that they can afford and no one should feel priced out of their community. I benefited from the security of a good council house growing up, and I want everyone to have that opportunity. As Mayor, I am determined to deliver a golden era of more council and social homes, using all means at our disposal in Greater Manchester.
“Nationally we face a housing crisis, with too many people trapped on housing waiting lists or living in poor sub-standard rented accommodation. In Greater Manchester I’m determined to change that by building a new generation of council and social homes across Greater Manchester and making it a GM-wide mission, with a new board to oversee our delivery.
“We’ve already started ramping up delivery. When I was Manchester Council Leader I built more council and social homes than Manchester had built in 25 years, but we need to go further and faster in every bit of Greater Manchester.
“Too many brownfield sites sit empty across Greater Manchester – so I will target them and set up a new Public Sector Land Bank that can be used for council, social and genuinely affordable homes. We will be leading by example when it comes to freeing up disused and dormant public land for development and I’m calling on other Government bodies to join us.
“I know first-hand the security that a council house brings. That’s why I am absolutely committed to delivering the council and social homes that people here in Greater Manchester ne, so everyone can have the foundation of a good life in our city region.”
The housing programme will be underpinned by Places for Everyone, the joint development plan covering nine Greater Manchester councils. The plan has helped remove planning barriers while identifying development opportunities that prioritise brownfield land and protect Green Belt sites from unplanned development.
As part of that work, land has already been identified to support the delivery of 78,585 new homes of all tenures by 2030.
There are already encouraging signs of progress. Salford and Stockport are currently delivering more social rent homes than they are losing through the Right to Buy scheme, helping to reverse long-term declines in the social housing stock. Greater Manchester leaders expect the entire city region to be building more socially rented homes than are being lost through Right to Buy by 2027.
The region is also expected to receive an initial £1.8 billion allocation from the Government's Social and Affordable Homes Programme, with discussions continuing between Greater Manchester, local authorities and central government on how delivery can be accelerated further.
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