Manchester City Council has unveiled a new housing strategy, and it looks to bringing 36,000 new homes to the area over the next 10 years.
In a bid to create “diverse, sustainable, and long-lasting communities” across Manchester, the Council has decided to give the city’s housing strategy a refresh and update it to meet the demand for all types of homes – which crucially includes the ambitious commitment to building a whopping 36,000 more before the year 2032.
10,000 of these homes will be social and affordable housing, according to the Council.
The Council said it will need to work closely in partnership both the private and public housing sectors to achieve this ambition set out.
At least 80% of all the new homes set to be built over the next decade are on Brownfield sites close to public transport links, according to the Council, and there are also plans to build 3,000 new large affordable family homes by 2032 as well with the aim of tackling overcrowding in parts of the city where families are bigger.
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The new housing strategy also includes building more homes for older people that are “the right size” and appropriate for their needs.
We have launched our new Housing Strategy for the next ten years that will deliver the homes that Manchester people need over the next decade – creating diverse, sustainable, and long-lasting communities.
— Manchester City Council (@ManCityCouncil) June 16, 2022
Aside from the ambition to build tens of thousands of new homes, planners are also committed to supporting 15,000 more people get on the property ladder over the next 10 years, and the Council is looking to do this by increasing the number of Shared Ownership and Rent To Buy homes delivered too.
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With Manchester’s target to become a zero carbon city-region by 2038 also in mind, the Council says that at least a third of the city’s 70,000 social homes will be retrofitted to low carbon standards by 2032.
50% of the new homes built by 2025 will also be low or zero carbon.
“We believe that everyone should have access to a safe home in a vibrant community, that is secure and affordable to our residents,” explained Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development.
“We are confident that this new strategy will help our residents move into the homes they need, and it will react to a number of challenges, including increasing the number of affordable and social homes, helping people to get a foot on the property ladder, and to make sure housing is a key part of the city’s zero carbon journey.”
The housing strategy has been updated in a bid to create “diverse, sustainable, and long-lasting communities” across Manchester / Credit: Manchester City Council
Manchester City Council’s leader Bev Craig also pointed to good-quality housing being “a fundamental need for everyone”.
She continued: “Our new housing strategy is about making sure that Manchester works for everyone [and] it means building the homes our residents need, adapting to tackle climate change head on, and making the city affordable to anyone who wants to live here.
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“Manchester has always been a place of opportunity and ambition.
“Our approach to housing must meet that potential and deliver the homes that work for Manchester people.”
Featured Image – Manchester City Council
News
NHS to begin offering new one-minute jab to women with ‘aggressive’ form of cancer
Emily Sergeant
The NHS is set to begin offering new immunotherapy for hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer across the country.
Pembrolizumab – which experts have described as being able to ‘take the handbrake off’ the body’s immune system to target cancer – will now be presented as a new treatment option for women in England with locally-advanced cervical cancer, which means the cancer has grown beyond the cervix to regions such as the pelvic wall, but not yet spread further around the body.
Trials found that adding pembrolizumab to standard chemoradiotherapy helped keep cancer ‘at bay’ for longer, and improved survival rates overall.
Two years after starting the treatment, nearly seven in 10 patients (68%) were still living without their cancer progressing, compared with 57% for those receiving chemoradiotherapy alone, according to NHS figures.
The trial also found that 82.6% of patients were still alive three years after treatment with pembrolizumab and chemoradiotherapy, compared with 74.8% with chemoradiotherapy alone.
Hundreds of women with aggressive cervical cancer are to be offered a new immunotherapy treatment.
It marks one of the biggest improvements in treatment for the disease in years, and could help more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long term.
The drug is either given every three or siz weeks via an infusion, or as a ‘one-minute’ injection, alongside chemoradiotherapy.
The NHS estimates around 550 patients in England will be eligible for the treatment – which has been approved this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – over the next two years.
Patients will now receive fast-tracked access, funded by NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund.
“This is great news for women facing a diagnosis of aggressive cervical cancer, and represents one of the biggest improvements in treatment for this disease in recent years,” commented Professor Peter Johnson, who is the NHS National Clinical Director for Cancer.
“Combining this immunotherapy with existing treatment has had very positive effect for patients in trials, helping the body’s immune system to target cancer more effectively.
“We’re delighted it will be available for patients on the NHS as it could help hundreds more women survive and stay cancer-free in the long-term.”
Featured Image – NappyStudio (via Unsplash)
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Andy Burnham wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster
Emily Sergeant
Andy Burnham has set out his vision for the country if he is to become Prime Minister.
In case you need brining up to speed first, after it was announced earlier this month that Andy Burnham had clinched the victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election, winning 24,927 votes (54.8% vote share) and a majority of 9,231, he then went onto announce his intention to run for Labour Party leader, and therefore Prime Minister, after Keir Starmer confirmed he would be stepping down.
And this week, Mr Burnham has now delivered his first speech as part of his ongoing campaign, addressing how he plans to give the country a ‘new direction’.
Burnham says that he wants to bring the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to Westminster.
A lot has been discussed and reported on when it comes to Burnham’s intentions to create a so-called Number 10 North here in Manchester, but what exactly does it mean to take the ‘Greater Manchester way’ to the capital?
“The Greater Manchester way is based on strong partnership between all sectors: public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith, and our trade unions,” Burnham said in his speech.
He continued: “When I started as Mayor in 2017, we set about building a new approach, a new politics based on the exact opposite of the Westminster approach.
“Place-first, not party-first. Problem-solving, not point-scoring. Long-term, not short-term.
“A decade on, it’s incredible how much we’ve been able to achieve by working together instead of fighting against one another.”
Burnham said he feels the truth is that the country spends ‘too much time arguing and not enough time doing’ and that for Britain to get back where it ‘should be’, his Government would ask everyone to ‘face the same way’ and then ‘pull in that same direction together’.
He declared that No 10 North will be the ‘nerve centre’ for a rewired Britain.
“It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK,” he concluded. “It will coordinate all parts of Government, at national and local level, to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions.”
Emily Sergeant -
21st June 2022 
