{"id":315009,"date":"2025-08-03T16:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315009\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T16:44:18","slug":"manchesters-housing-crisis-is-not-the-councils-fault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/315009\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester’s housing crisis is not the council’s fault"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arguments are raging within Manchester town hall about how many affordable homes should be built, and who should pay for them(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham frequently says Greater Manchester\u2019s teenagers \u2018can see the skyscrapers from their bedroom window\u2019 but can\u2019t see \u2018a path\u2019 there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a comment he uses to argue for improved education so teenagers can secure a well-paying job in the city centre. But it could just as easily be applied to house prices.<\/p>\n

Since Mr Burnham took the mayoralty in 2017, thousands of luxury apartments have been constructed in town. Despite traditional economic logic dictating extra supply will lower prices, a council report last year found new \u2018homes are increasingly priced towards the top of the market however\u2026 this can result in the perverse impact of new supply ostensibly adding to the inflationary pressures in parts of the city where new development has been most intense\u2019.<\/p>\n

The average house price in Manchester city centre<\/a> in April was \u00a3270,036. That\u2019s more than eight times the average Manchester salary, calculated at \u00a332,704 last November.<\/p>\n

In the same month, the average rent in the borough of Manchester was listed at \u00a31,310 per month. That’s means someone earning the average Manchester salary would have to spend more than half of their take-home pay on rent if they lived alone.<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s not like the council hasn\u2019t tried to stop house prices climbing in town.<\/p>\n

(Image: Jake Lindley \/ Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Since 2012, it\u2019s had a policy that says a fifth of all units need to be affordable, if a developer is set to make 20 per cent profit.<\/p>\n

How much money a developer will make is scrutinised by an independent expert, and if they tell the council the \u2018viability assessment\u2019 shows returns under 20 per cent, the developer is exempt from affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Often, the town hall will still ask developers to make a smaller \u2018section 106 contribution\u2019 to community infrastructure, like schools or parks, or the council\u2019s \u2018housing affordability fund\u2019 in lieu of the affordable homes.<\/p>\n

It also includes \u2018clawback clauses\u2019 when giving out planning permission, so if a developer that initially is exempt from affordable housing then makes more than 20 per cent profit, the council can get more cash out of them. While they rarely produce big returns to the public purse, it was recently revealed one had to pay \u00a3700,000 for a city centre project.<\/p>\n

(Image: Vincent Cole – Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

How much developers chip into public projects and affordable housing made headline news this summer, following a court case between Mr Burnham’s office, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and Aubrey Weis, a major city centre landowner.<\/p>\n

Mr Weis claimed the GMCA\u2019s decision to loan major developer Renaker \u00a3140m \u2018distorted\u2019 the property market. The Competition Appeals Tribunal dismissed the claim.<\/p>\n

Contributions were raised again by opposition Lib Dem councillor Chris Northwood earlier this month, who told the town hall: \u201cMany, many large-scale developments in the city centre are approved through planning with zero affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means we are not building those mixed, integrated communities for the future we want. It seems to me the existing system of independent assessments does not produce meaningful figures\u2026 and there\u2019s a huge lack of transparency over these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her motion referenced a 2017 Shelter report which found developers \u2018inflate their bids for land\u2019, pushing up the total bill for a building. That means profit margins take a hit in viability assessments so they don\u2019t hit the 20 per cent threshold and don\u2019t build affordable units, the report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDevelopers know that they can use the loophole, and so factor it into their bids for new sites,\u201d author Rose Grayston concluded. \u201cIn fact, they must: if one developer does not plan to use the loophole, they risk being outbid for land by another one who does. This pushes the price of land up, making development more expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coun Northwood\u2019s motion was amended by governing Labour<\/a> councillors, who point out most affordable housing is actually funded by a completely different scheme.<\/p>\n

Last year, 3,864 new homes were built in Manchester, with around 3,300 available on the open market, and 511 affordable (13 per cent of the total). More is coming \u2014 contractors are currently building roughly 12,000 homes in the city, 1,470 of which are affordable (12 per cent), and about 18,500 units are in the planning system now, with around 2,250 affordable (12 per cent).<\/p>\n

In fact, section 106 money only builds about one in 10 affordable homes in Manchester. The other 90 per cent is funded by grants given to housing associations and public bodies, largely from Homes England and the GMCA.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why town hall chiefs have been genuinely encouraged by Rachel Reeves\u2019 decision to \u2018double the grant pot\u2019 to \u00a339b over the next decade, because it\u2019s a model they understand. And it\u2019s a game they\u2019ve become good at playing.<\/p>\n

(Image: One Manchester)<\/p>\n

Recently, One Manchester finished 24 new apartments and houses on Brigham Street in Openshaw, made possible by Homes England grants which created Manchester council\u2019s \u00a33m \u2018Project 500\u2019 initiative, that helps housing associations cover the cost of building on brownfield land. All 24 homes are affordable, as are all Project 500 homes \u2014 90 per cent will also be available at social rent.<\/p>\n

Grants also help the authority\u2019s own development company, called This City, which recently finished No. 1 Ancoats Green, a 129-apartment and townhouse development where 30 per cent are available at \u2018Manchester Living Rent\u2019, set at the level of the local housing allowance.<\/p>\n

Another city centre project from housing association Great Places will create 89 affordable flats on Laystall Street in the Northern Quarter<\/a> in spring 2026 \u2014 again made possible by grant funding.<\/p>\n

The council has other levers to help get affordable homes to Mancs. A fifth of the massive, 850-home development planned for Mayfield will be affordable, partly due to the fact the town hall is a member of the \u2018partnership\u2019 overseeing the redevelopment of the area into a new neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also been able to lean on developer Salboy to make nearly 30 per cent of the homes in its Viadux 2 project affordable, because it owns the land where two towers will shoot up.<\/p>\n

A new council initiative has also brought 276 empty homes back to the market, although only three have gone towards social housing.<\/p>\n

(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

But while efforts are being made to solve Manchester\u2019s housing crisis, the current rate of building is clearly not enough.<\/p>\n

A recent town hall report found the number of people on the top three bands of the council\u2019s housing register surged to 11,500, an increase of 15 per cent, last year. It\u2019s grown by 49 per cent since April 2022.<\/p>\n

In part, the reason why affordable housing demand is growing when affordable housing supply is increasing is because newbuild figures are tempered by right-to-buy sales.<\/p>\n

Council tenants can purchase their home after three years. Last year, 137 did so, so the \u2018net gain\u2019 of affordable housing to Manchester wasn\u2019t 511 \u2014 it was 374.<\/p>\n

Over the last decade, the city built 3,998 affordable homes. It lost 2,139 to right-to-buy, so a net rise of only 1,859.<\/p>\n

The government is planning on making it harder for council tenants to buy their homes, extending the minimum occupancy window to 10 years and exempting any new stock from right-to-buy for 35 years \u2014 so the problem will subside, but not disappear.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just smaller gains that\u2019s an issue. Roughly half of all newly-constructed city centre homes, which would be perfect for first-time-buyers, are bought by investors to rent out \u2014 something council officer Nick Cole called \u2018a concern\u2019, because it cuts the amount of homes available to buy and increases the number of renters, blocking up the market.<\/p>\n

Nationally, big changes are in store for renters, as section 21 \u2018no fault evictions\u2019 are expected to be abolished in early 2026 by the government. Ahead of the move, the council is seeing a spike in section 21 notices, sometimes following persistent increases in rent to a point where tenants can make ends meet \u2014 so they enter the council housing system.<\/p>\n

(Image: ABNM Photography)<\/p>\n

The question of how many affordable homes and who should pay for them looms as Manchester council is preparing its first local plan for 13 years \u2014 effectively its blueprint for development.<\/p>\n

It will be formally adopted by the end of the year. Campaigners are calling for all new developments to include 30 per cent affordable housing, but the final details of the plan have yet to be released.<\/p>\n

Whatever the final document says in the autumn, Manchester as a city will need to keep building affordable homes \u2014 and that requires grants to fund it, the council to steer it, and developers to play their part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arguments are raging within Manchester town hall about how many affordable homes should be built, and who should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,6333,2465,8086,8828,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-315009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-housing","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city-centre","14":"tag-manchester-council","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114965844362383583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}