Manchester has been awarded £3 million in funding to support a number of housing projects across the city region.
Aiming to bring long-term brownfield land back into use, the funding will help build 210 homes at sites across north and east Manchester and one site in the city centre – with 119 of those homes to be considered ‘affordable housing’.
Working in partnership with the city’s registered housing provider, Project 500 aims to make smaller, harder-to-develop pockets of land available in a bid to increase the number of affordable homes available in the city, with an initial view to build 500 affordable homes and an ambition to exceed that number in the coming years.
All of the Project 500 homes will be capped at the Manchester Living Rent, which is the level set by the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rate, and ensures they’ll be affordable to as many people as possible – including those on housing benefits.
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Manchester awarded £3m funding to build hundreds of new ‘affordable’ homes across the city / Credit: Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council has confirmed the following Project 500 housing projects will receive a chunk of funding from the new allocation:
Rodney Street (Ancoats and Beswick) – £1,677,862 (38 affordable, 91 market – 129 homes)
Blackwin Street (Gorton) – £160,000 (seven affordable homes)
Plant Hill Road (Higher Blackley) – £175,000 (12 affordable homes)
On top of these developments, 13 affordable homes are due to be built on Jurby Avenue in Higher Blackley, which will be social rent specialist ‘Extra Care’ homes for people with dementia – with a total of £215,280 allocated in funding.
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All of these new homes in the Project 500 initiative are part of the ambitious target set in the Council’s Housing Strategy up to 2032 – which includes the target to help build 36,000 new homes across the city.
10,000 of these new homes will be ‘affordable’, with 3,000 located in the city centre.
“Developing this land and bringing it back into use is an important part of our plans to deliver 36,000 new homes in the next 10 years,” commented Cllr Gavin White, who is Manchester City Council’s executive member for Housing and Development, as the funding allocation was announced.
“Brownfield land is often more challenging to develop, and we have lots of smaller plots that are financially difficult to build on.
“But this funding will support our partnership with the city’s registered providers to build on these smaller plots of land as part of our Project 500 initiative – delivering the affordable homes our residents need.”
Featured Image – Manchester City Council
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NASA reveals exact time you can see ‘Santa’s sleigh’ fly over Greater Manchester
Thomas Melia
Not long left till Santa and his reindeer crew fly over the skies of Manchester to drop off some of the most amazing presents of the year.
Manchester must have been extra nice this year, as Santa is treating us to lots of chances to catch a glimpse of him on his mission to deliver millions of gifts in time for Christmas.
Just like every year, Santa is dusting off his sleigh and polishing his boots to prepare for his biggest night visiting lots of kids and families. The sleigh is being filled with lots of goodies and surprises as we speak, it’s almost like he can smell the cookies and milk from here.
NASA, one of the world’s leading space companies, has been working meticulously to find out Santa’s route for 2024.
The world-renowned space agency has given us an exact time to look up at the stars to spot the main man himself and catch the glimmer of lights from his sleigh.
NASA has reveals the exact time you can see ‘Santa’s sleigh’ flying over Greater Manchester this Christmas / Credit: Tim Mossholder (via Unsplash)
As a man who has lots of experience globe trotting, it’s safe to say the big man knows how to efficiently cover as many houses as possible all in one night.
Santa’s sleigh will be present at the same time as the International Space Station (ISS), however anyone looking to see this festive vehicle can notice the lights won’t change direction and will not flash.
This time round, Santa is swooshing round Greater Manchester on Christmas Day a whole hour earlier than last year, meaning that nice list must be the longest it’s ever been.
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Tuesday 24 December
5:21am
Santa’s sleigh lights will be visible for two minutes travelling South East to East, as the man of Christmas weighs up his North West delivery route.
6:54am
Theres a six minute opportunity to catch those bright lights of Santa’s sleigh in the Manchester sky as he travels from West to South East, finalising his map before the big night ahead.
Wednesday 25 December
4:35am
It will be visible for less than a minute, no movement, in a static position. Santa will be doing a headcount of all the houses to make sure he’s not missed a single chimney.
6:08am
The sleigh will be seen for four minutes, moving from South West to South East, by now Santa will have finished his Manchester delivery drop and will be heading on over the hill to our friends in Leeds.
University of Bolton announces ‘historic’ name change despite opposition
Emily Sergeant
The University of Bolton has officially changed its name.
That’s right… after more than a year of deliberation, including opposition from other higher education institutions across the region, claiming it would be a cause of confusion for prospective students, Bolton‘s university has now successfully become the University of Greater Manchester in what has been described as a “historic” move.
The institution was given the go-ahead by the regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), to adopt the new name with immediate effect after submitting the change 17 months ago.
Current and past Students’ Union Presidents of the university, alongside its governors, unanimously supported the name change.
The name change was approved after an independent economic impact assessment report – which was commissioned by the university earlier this year – revealed that the benefit to the local economy would be millions of pounds per year.
With the name change coming ahead of the university’s 200th anniversary next year, this means that, as of 2025, all graduating students will receive degree certificates from the University of Greater Manchester instead.
On top of this, any former graduate dating back to when the institution achieved university status in 2005 can be issued with a replacement certificate featuring the new name, if they request one.
Announcing the name change last week, Professor George E Holmes, who is the President and Vice Chancellor called it a “historic moment” for the university.
“Bolton is an amazing town and it is our base, and it is our home where we intend to stay, it is the home of the University of Greater Manchester, now in Bolton.
“This is an institution that students and staff can be remarkably proud of. The name change is very good news for our students, very good news for the institution, very good news for the town and amazing news for jobs.”
Emily Sergeant -
8th November 2023 
