HOME MEXTURE

MORE affordable homes are set to be built in and around the city centre.

- ETHAN DAVIES

New communities will be furnished with 'green spaces, doctors, dentists and schools, according to the Labour council's housing and development lead, Coun Gavin White.

That's because 'we know that's what's needed in each area to make them successful; he told the M.E.N. in a recent walkabout of Ancoats, where many of the new homes are planned.

It's a grey Mancunian day when Mr White, a self-described 'dormant' architect by trade who has been a councillor since 2018, begins his tour.

The starting point is the This City building site on Rodney Street.

This City is the development company wholly-owned by Manchester council. It's a key part of the authority's push to see 10,000 'genuinely affordable' homes built by 2032.

And, longer-term, This City is also a key part of ensuring homes do not leave the affordable housing system via right to buy purchases. As This City is a private limited company, residents in the homes it builds do not have that right to buy their homes, unlike residents in housing association or council properties.

The Rodney Street site includes 129 homes under construction - 38 of these will be available at the 'Manchester Living Rent set at or below the Local Housing Allowance level.

Nearby is Great Places' under-construction Downley Drive project, which will have a block of 43 flats available for Coun social rent and another 25 shared ownership houses. Both of these schemes are part of the inelegantly-titled 'Back of Ancoats' blueprint, which also includes more Manchester Life flats at Eliza Yard and Jersey Wharf on the open rental market.

The hub of this area will be the rejuvenated Ancoats Green and mobility hub, Coun White says. But the affordability doesn't stop on the northern side of the Rochdale Canal.

On the other side of New Islington Marina are two very-recently-opened schemes. Islington Wharf, on the corner of Old Mill Street and Great Ancoats Street, opened late last year.