Social impact developer CAPITAL&CENTRIC is set to redevelop the former Central Retail Park site in Rochdale into a thriving new community.
As featured on BBC2’s Manctopia: Billion Pound Property Boom, the brownfield site will be the first in the UK to deliver CAPITAL&CENTRIC’s new housing concept ‘Neighbourhood’, which is in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council and Rochdale Development Agency.
Neighbourhood Rochdale will include over 200 suburban homes for rent, including a mix of modern, spacious and low carbon homes. Designed by shedkm to be a sustainable exemplar, it will also include a linear park, running track, gym and community hub alongside community space such as café-bars and delis.
The site – which has been vacant for nearly a decade and was previously occupied by Wynsors, Focus and MFI – is a short walk from both the train station, which offers an easy commute into Manchester city centre, and Rochdale town centre.
The plans are part of the transformation of Rochdale town centre, which is in the middle of a £400m regeneration programme.
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Councillor John Blundell – Cabinet member for Regeneration, Business, Skills and Employment at Rochdale Borough Council, board member at the Rochdale Development Agency, and chair of the Rochdale Stations Alliance – said: “With millions already invested into Rochdale town centre, we’ve set the bar very high in terms of want to achieve here and this type of high quality housing is the perfect fit.
“To see the first large scheme come forward from Rochdale’s Rail Corridor strategy is a major milestone and shows the commitment to the strategy.
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“The work we’re doing to create a high quality retail and leisure offer and a reimagined public realm, makes Rochdale a really attractive place to live and I know that these will be the first of many new homes to be built in Rochdale.”
Adam Higgins – co-founder of CAPITAL&CENTRIC – said: “Many Greater Manchester towns have been hit hard by the declining high street but there’s a huge opportunity for places like Rochdale to reinvent themselves with town centre living. The council have a really ambitious vision to transform the town centre and we’re working with them to create an aspirational community with super energy efficient homes, game changing architecture and all the amenities that will attract people to town centre living.”
Designed to breathe life back into struggling town centres, the Neighbourhood concept could be rolled out by CAPITAL&CENTRIC across the UK.
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It aims to reinvent suburban living by designing homes and communities that suit how people live today.
Using modern methods of construction and with open-plan, design-led homes that maximise the use of space, Neighbourhood is a challenge to generic, out-dated housing types that focuses on curating mixed communities for people of all ages.
It goes beyond thinking just about housing, and includes workspaces, community hubs and amenities.
Adam Higgins continued: “Neighbourhood is our way of bridging the gap between urban and suburban living. An antidote to poor quality, out-dated and uninspiring housing types, it recognises that people want to live in communities not just homes, so in Rochdale, we’re planning plenty of green space, a community hub and café-bar.
With easy links into Manchester and a proper mix of homes, we see it appealing just as much to young professionals as downsizers ands it’ll also be pretty unique in that it’s suburban homes but all of them will be for rent.”
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A planning application for Neighbourhood Rochdale is expected early next year.
It will be built by leading construction company Willmott Dixon – who recently completed the £80 million retail and leisure development nearby at Rochdale Riverside – and the site investigation works have started on site this week.
You can find more information via the CAPITAL&CENTRIC website here.
Property
Andy Burnham pledges to build 10,000 new council houses in Greater Manchester by 2028
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has pledged to build 10,000 new council houses across Greater Manchester before 2028 arrives.
Following his declaration back in January that 2024 would be the year Greater Manchester “gets serious about housing”, the Mayor of Greater Manchester – who was re-elected for his third term as the region’s Labour mayor this past weekend – has vowed to tackle the housing crisis within the next decade, and is promising to build a “new generation” of council homes.
Mr Burnham is keen to put housing “centre stage” and make it a “top priority” over the course of his next mayoral term, and by 2028, he wants there to be 1,000 new council houses in each of Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs.
This will involve identifying brownfield sites and land owned by public bodies where the homes can be built in each borough.
Also, as part of his wider housing mission, Mr Burnham has also asked the Government to devolve powers to suspend ‘Right to Buy’ on these new-build council homes and in areas of greatest housing need in a bid to help “stem the critical loss” of social housing to the private rented sector in Greater Manchester.
This request comes after it was revealed that our city-region has lost nearly 24,000 homes to ‘Right to Buy’ within in the last 20 years – including 571 sold in 2022-23 alone.
Some of the other housing measures announced by the Mayor yesterday include the introduction of a pilot scheme – which would be rolled-out across Greater Manchester by the end of 2024 – that offers residents the right to request a property check, and the opening of the new ‘GM Good Landlord Charter’ to applications by the summer, setting out standards for rental properties, and supporting landlords to meet them.
Mr Burnham will also look to expand the much-valued ‘A Bed Every Night’ scheme to at least 600 places every night during his third mayoral term to provide “crucial support” to rough sleepers as the rising cost of living crisis continues.
The Mayor has confirmed he will continue to donate 15% of his salary each month to support the scheme.
“Greater Manchester can’t achieve its full potential as long as it remains in the grip of a housing crisis,” Mr Burnham explained as he set out his plans for the future as Greater Manchester’s Mayor.
“That is why I am setting a new ambition for the city-region to end it within a decade.
“Everyone deserves to live in a good, safe home, and by building new council homes, and by suspending the Right to Buy on them, we can give our Councils the breathing space they desperately need to replenish their stock, so that all of those waiting in temporary accommodation or on the housing registers have the chance to access good homes.”
Featured Image – Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)
Property
Bolton has been named the ‘mouldiest’ place in the UK
Emily Sergeant
Bolton has been named the ‘mouldiest’ place in the UK, and it’s joined by two other Greater Manchester towns in the top 10.
Talk about a not-so-coveted title, right?
From damp flats to poorly-ventilated houses, the battle against mould seems to be constant for many UK residents, and while Awaab’s Law – which was named in memory of Rochdale toddler, Awaab Ishak, and introduced back in 2023 – was brought in to tackle this very problem, by mandating faster response times from social housing landlords for dealing with damp-related issues, the problem still continues for homeowners and tenants alike despite this new legislation.
And now, some new research by thermal imaging experts at Tester has revealed where the ‘mouldiest’ places to live in the UK are.
Bolton has been named the ‘mouldiest’ place in the UK / Credit: Wikimedia Commons | Benjamin Elliott (via Unsplash)
Tester measured the average monthly search volume for various mould-related terms over the past 12 months – including ‘mould removal cost’, and ‘black mould removal’ – to figure out where the mouldiest places in the country are, and devise a top 10 list.
Bolton takes the title of the UK’s mouldiest place, according to the new research, with an average monthly search volume for mould-related terms of 945 per 100,000 people, and ‘magic mould’ being the most-searched term as residents seem eager to find a simple solution to their ever-growing mould problems.
Top 10 ‘mouldiest’ places in the UK
Bolton
Croydon
Manchester
Bath
Bristol
Lincoln
Bournemouth
Norwich
Stockport
Wakefield
Manchester places third on the list, with an average monthly search volume of 922 per 100,000 people, and Stockport also features in the less-than-ideal top 10 at number nine.
Croydon in London claims the runner-up spot on the list, while Bath and Bristol round out the top five alongside Manchester, and Lincoln, Norwich, and Wakefield are some of the other areas to make up the top 10.
A spokesperson for Tester admitted that the surge in searches for mould-related terms in the UK is “worrying to say the least”.
Speaking on the findings from the team’s new research, they continued in a statement: “The study shows that UK residents are actively seeking out mould removal solutions, pointing to a wider problem of mould and mildew growth in homes not being properly dealt with, either by landlords or homeowners themselves.”