Just over £50 million funding has been awarded to build thousands of new affordable homes right across Manchester.
Following several successful submissions to Greater Manchester Combined Authority‘s (GMCA) ‘Brownfield Housing Fund’, it’s now been confirmed that Manchester City Council has been awarded a total of £51.6 million to fund the development of 31 long-term underused sites throughout the city-region over the next two years.
The includes the building of 3,380 new homes, including 1,761 – or the equivalent of 52% – that are considered to be “genuinely affordable” to Manchester people.
This new package of funding is part of the “trailblazer agreement” between the UK Government and Greater Manchester over three years, which is aiming to unlock Brownfield land and use it to build new housing.
With this new funding added, this means that the total funding allocated to the region is now a £128 million in this phase of bidding, and a whopping £150 million overall.
We have successfully bid for £51.6m funding from GMCA to build thousands of new homes on unused brownfield sites over the next two years – including 1,761 genuinely affordable homes.
News of the £51.6 million funding allocation comes not long after Mayor Andy Burnham declared that he want 2024 to be the year that Greater Manchester “gets serious about housing”, and follows the Council’s £50 million investment into making a series of “transformational upgrades” to social housing in the borough.
The Council has previously successfully bid for £3 million from the national ‘Brownfield Land Release Fund’, and this was used to kickstart development at the inaugural ‘This City’ site in Ancoats, as well as a range of ‘Project 500’ housing sites too.
£50m funding awarded to build thousands more ‘genuinely affordable’ homes in Manchester / Credit: Manchester City Council
Cllr Gavin White, who is Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Housing and Development, has called the Council’s goal of building 36,000 new homes by 2032 “necessarily ambitious”.
He continued: “This is a challenge, both in terms of available land and the funding necessary to build new housing at scale, but we are on course to meet these targets.
“However, we must be innovative and use the resources available to use.
“As a post-industrial city, we have lots of Brownfield sites that are sometimes difficult to develop, but this land represents a massive opportunity to deliver the homes, particularly the affordable housing our residents need.
“This funding is hugely welcome and we will help bring these unused areas of Manchester back into use.”
Featured Image – Manchester City Council
News
Body found in search for missing man Craig Foy after police scour Heaton Park
Daisy Jackson
A body has been discovered in the search for missing Bury man Craig Foy.
Greater Manchester Police’s Major Incident Team had been carrying out an extensive search for Craig, 40, after he disappeared on Saturday 26 July.
Those searches had included the Heaton Park area, after CCTV appeared to show the Whitefield man climbing into the park just before midnight.
Officers have now confirmed that a body has been found in connection with the investigation.
While formal identification is yet to take place, it’s believed to be that of Craig.
Craig’s family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.
Earlier in the week, GMP said that three men were arrested on suspicion of murder, with one suspect since released on bail and two others facing no further action.
Detective Chief Inspector Jill Billington, from GMP’s Serious Crime Division, said: “The investigation remains ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to Craig’s death, and to ensure that we can get the answers that his family deserve.
“We appreciate the support of the public in sharing our appeals to locate Craig and ask for his family to be given privacy, space and time to process their loss.”
Police are still appealing for information relating to the investigation – you can contact GMP on 101 quoting log number 917-28/7/25 or via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
New data reveals a third of Brits admit to secretly sneaking off work early on a Friday
Emily Sergeant
Surprising new data has revealed that a third of Brits admits to secretly sneaking off work early on a Friday.
After a long and tiring week, most of us would love the chance to clock off work a little earlier than usual on a Friday, but for a lot of workers, this isn’t always a possibility – and for some, they even have to work longer at the end of the week to make sure everything has been finished off and tied up before the weekend arrives.
But since there has been a noticeable rise in remote working and working from home, a new survey has revealed that working attitudes have changed.
Virgin Media has released new broadband data that reveals a drop in traffic on Friday afternoons during the summer months – with as much as an 8% dip between 3-5pm compared to the winter, as remote workers clock off early.
A third of Brits admit to secretly sneaking off work early on a Friday / Credit: Glenn Carstens-Peters | Robin Worrall (via Unsplash)
The Friday traffic drop-off comes from Virgin Media’s broadband network analysis, which it says is a ‘reliable indicator’ of the connectivity habits of the British public.
Alongside the network data, Virgin Media also asked Brits about their work policies and working habits ij a bid to fully understand the trend.
Nearly a third (30%) of Brits say they have a formal early Friday finish in place during the summer, but despite almost half of UK adults (48%) saying they’re not authorised to finish early on a Friday, 32% have admitted to regularly logging off with or without official permission.
Surprising new data has revealed Brits’ working habits / Credit: Chuttersnap (via Unsplash)
Many Brits have also confessed to working ‘on the move’ on a Friday afternoon too.
15% admitted to having worked from the train station as the weekend creeps nearer, as well as 14% from the park, 10% from the pub, and many as 30% of 18-24-year-olds worked from the car while travelling for the weekend.
“Our network traffic analysis is revealing changing workplace habits in real time as the nation takes advantage of long summer Fridays,” commented Jeanie York, who is the Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2.
“We’re continuing to boost our fixed and mobile networks so whether Brits are working from their local park, or finishing their work at home, we’re ready to keep them connected.”
Emily Sergeant -
29th January 2024 
