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Manchester City Council to spend £47m on social housing upgrades
Manchester City Council has announced it will spend £47m upgrading its social housing stock over the next two years.
The large North West authority has managed around 12,500 council-owned properties since it brought its ALMO, Northwards Housing, back in-house in 2021.
Now the council is embarking on what it described as its biggest upgrade programme “in years”, with plans to improve 2,000 homes, enhance fire safety in its high-rise buildings, and install new kitchens and boilers.
A £2m portion of the fund has been earmarked for essential adaptations, making sure the needs are met of residents with accessibility requirements and ensuring they can live in their homes independently for longer.
The fund also includes £5m towards improving the fire safety of the city’s tower blocks, including sprinkler systems and wider fire safety improvements, such as flat compartmentation, new fire doors and better access routes.
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Meanwhile, general estate upgrades will include more than 1,000 new or improved bathrooms and 244 new kitchens.
New boilers will be installed in 324 homes to improve the energy efficiency of these properties and reduce property running costs for residents. Manchester Council will also install 110 ground or air-source heat pumps and 67 solar panels.
The investment is in addition to £49.7m announced in July for the improving the energy efficiency of its social housing stock.
Using £11.6m of funds from the government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and a £38m contribution from the council’s capital programme, 1,603 council-owned homes will be retrofitted with better roof insulation, solar paneling and other improvements.
Beginning in 2024, Manchester Council’s housing team will start to develop a five-year programme of home and estate improvements.
This will be supported by a condition survey of all 12,500 council-owned homes in the city, which will help inform and prioritise any improvement works that are required.
The council said that under new leadership, its housing services team has begun to tackle a backlog of repairs exacerbated by the delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The service has reported an 85% approval rating for works carried out in the first quarter of this year.
Gavin White, executive member for housing and development at Manchester Council, said: “This is one of the biggest investments in council-owned homes in many years and is a clear commitment to our residents to deliver a social housing sector that our tenants can trust and homes they can be proud to live in.
“We want to deliver the best possible service for social housing tenants, and we firmly believe that everyone in Manchester deserves a safe, secure and decent home.
“Bringing the management of the social housing the council owns back in-house was done to help continue with our focus on improving the management standards of our residents’ homes. This move was also a commitment to delivering vital and further capital investment to improve the quality and standard of our homes and properties.”
Northwards Housing was brought back in-house in 2021 amid concerns over its repairs service and Housing Revenue Account finances.
Last year, Manchester Council launched This City, a wholly owned development company that aims to build 500 homes a year on council-owned land.
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