It’s been a long time coming
New development keeps coming up in Manchester, but there’s going to be a big shake-up of the rules developers follow(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Manchester council has unveiled its first city-wide development blueprint in more than a decade — and it could lead to a surge in new affordable homes.
Under Manchester council’s new draft local plan, developers will be required to make 30pc of all homes in a new housing project affordable, up from 20pc.
The draft local plan, required by law and last updated in 2012, also proposes expanding the city centre boundary, reviewing future demand for hotels, and examining if Manchester needs stronger architectural design standards.
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While the plan promises sweeping changes to development rules, Manchester council said the overall target for building homes — 3,533 annually — will be unchanged, a figure set by Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester Places for Everyone document approved last year.
“The local plan helps guide appropriate development in the city to make sure that it supports Manchester’s growth and provides a blueprint for development going through the planning process,” said executive councillor for development, Gavin White, on Wednesday (September 3).
“In order to meet our housing ambitions, we are consulting on increasing the percentage of affordable housing required, to bring it in line with our existing housing strategy.”
Councillor Gavin White (Image: Manchester City Council)
Campaigners have long called for more affordable housing to come to the city. Dr Sophie King argues the local plan should ensure 30pc of all homes built in the city available for social rent.
“We need a much higher specific target on social rent. 30pc social rent is evidence based, that’s what’s needed to address the housing crisis,” she said in June.
While the finished draft does not call for 30pc social rent, it does mandate that all developments of 10 or more homes should make 30pc affordable — and 70pc of the affordable quota should be available for social rent.
In a 100-home project, developers would need to make at least 21 units available for social rent, another nine available via another affordable housing mechanism, such as rent-to-buy, and the remaining 70 on the open market.
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But hopes of an affordable home-building revolution may be tempered by the fact that many new projects in Manchester do not see any new affordable homes built at all, due to ‘viability assessments’, when 20pc is mandated.
The assessments calculate how much profit a developer is set to make from a particular scheme, and if independent experts say the margin is smaller than 20pc, then developers do not need to build any affordable units and make a monetary contribution in kind.
The new draft says ‘a lower commuted sum may be permitted where a financial viability assessment is conducted and demonstrates that it is viable to deliver only a proportion of the affordable requirement’, effectively creating similar conditions for developers to not build cheaper units.
However, the town hall insists the lion’s share of affordable building will not be carried out under developers complying with local plan rules. Instead, its own housing strategy is aiming to add 10,000 cheaper homes.
“One of the key elements of this review is how we continue to build and increase the delivery of the homes that we know our residents need,” added Coun White.
“We have made a commitment to help build at least 36,000 homes up to 2032 – 10,000 of which will be affordable – and updates to the draft local plan looks to help us achieve and exceed this target.”