Innovative partnership to help address housing shortfall in Greater Manchester

An innovative partnership between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester Housing Providers is aiming to build hundreds of homes a year to help address the shortfall of housing in the city-region.

The Registered Providers Joint Venture partnership between the GMCA and ten Greater Manchester housing associations is one of the first of its kind in the country. It is looking to create an ambitious new entrant in the Greater Manchester housing market, delivering homes of all sizes across the 10 districts to meet the needs of our communities.

This will accelerate delivery to help meet housing targets, including potential to deliver affordable and social rented homes in partnership with local authorities.

It is hoped that in time the Joint Venture will build around 500 high-quality homes each year to meet the needs of Greater Manchester. Housing providers have a long commitment to creating jobs and improving the skills of Greater Manchester residents and the venture will contribute to accomplishing these goals.

Paul Dennett, City Mayor of Salford and GMCA Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness and Infrastructure said: “We are committed here in Greater Manchester to making sure the right houses are available in the right places and this partnership would help us to do that.

“We face challenges in the city-region in providing homes for everyone and we need to think outside the box to do so. We’re very happy to be working with Greater Manchester Housing Providers to increase the supply of much needed new homes.”

The GMCA is initially putting £2m into the venture from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Fund, once due diligence has been completed. Each of the housing associations has agreed to invest £3m into it.

Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said: “This is an innovative new way of looking to address the shortfall of housing in Greater Manchester and I am looking forward to working with our new partners in this exciting venture.

“This is just another example of how we are doing things differently in the city-region working with our partner housing providers and getting these much-needed houses built. The intention of this venture is to acquire the land and start working to develop it immediately.

“This is about getting things done but we won’t compromise on quality to do that. This will also allow us to be flexible and meet the needs of different boroughs.”

Where local authorities are able to accept reduced land value for sites or additional subsidy can be sourced, an increased level of affordable housing could be provided by the partnership.

Matthew Harrison, CEO and Executive Board Member of Great Places Housing Group, representing the housing providers, said: “It’s really exciting to be making so much progress with this initiative and that we’ve got all our Board approvals in place, a Project Director in post and that we’re now moving the conversation to talking about delivery.

“The Greater Manchester Housing Providers group is a brilliant vehicle for collaboration and in this case we’re bringing a new and disruptive housing supplier to the market, delivering new homes that are so desperately needed in Greater Manchester. The support of the Combined Authority has been fantastic and with the local districts and Homes England supporting us with access to land, we have a real opportunity to ramp up delivery of new homes beyond our affordable activity.

“This is ground breaking collaborative working that’s totally aligned with our social purpose and we’re now looking forward to getting on with building.”

Danielle Gillespie, Homes England’s General Manager for the North West added: “This Joint Venture effectively establishes a new entrant in the market and is a great example of how local partners and Homes England are working differently, to deliver additional homes in Greater Manchester.

Notes:

Greater Manchester Housing Providers is made up of 25 housing providers across Greater Manchester.

The ten GMHP members involved in the Registered Providers Joint Venture partnership include: Bolton-at-Home, Great Places Housing Group, Irwell Valley Homes, Mosscare St Vincents, One Manchester, Onward Homes, Salix Homes, Southway Housing, Trafford Housing Trust and Wythenshawe Community Housing Group.

Each have committed £3million to the JV alongside £2million from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.