Mayor announces Public Sector Land Bank as part of plans for 50,000 new council and affordable homes

Mayor of Greater Manchester Bev Craig has set out plans to build 50,000 new council and affordable homes across the city-region by 2039, and announced a new land bank to help identify disused public land for development.

By May 2028 10,000 of these homes will be built, on site, or in the pipeline with planning permission ready to go.

To support plans, the Mayor will be asking public bodies in Greater Manchester to carry out a public land review and identify sites that could be brought forward to deliver homes. The Public Sector Land Bank will sit alongside existing programmes, such as the Brownfield Housing Fund (part of the Good Growth Fund) that has already delivered social rent homes on council-owned sites in Stockport and across the city-region.

Mayor Bev Craig announced the scheme at a development in Ashton-under-Lyne, where Jigsaw Homes and developer Greenwood Builders delivered 35 new social rent homes on a brownfield site. The scheme was backed by £2.7 million from the Affordable Homes Programme and £700,000 from the Brownfield Housing Fund that funded decontamination of the land which otherwise would have blocked development.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Bev Craig said:

“Too many brownfield sites sit empty across Greater Manchester – so I will target them and set up a new Public Sector Land Bank that can be used for council, social and genuinely affordable homes. We will be leading by example when it comes to freeing up disused and dormant public land for development and I’m calling on other Government bodies to join us.

“I know first-hand the security that a council house brings. That’s why I am absolutely committed to delivering the council and social homes that people here in Greater Manchester need, so everyone can have the foundation of a good life in our city region.”

By 2027, Greater Manchester is expected to be building more socially rented homes than it is are losing to Right to Buy. Of the 10 council areas, Salford and Stockport are already building more homes for social rent than they are losing.