A report to be heard by the Council’s executive committee (Weds 14 January) details the significant progress being made to deliver the city’s ambitious housing strategy – including meeting the target to build at least 10,000 social, Council and genuinely affordable homes through to 2032.
The Housing Strategy was launched in 2022 with the aim of increasing the number of quality homes available to help meet demand as the city’s population continues to grow, maximise the number of new affordable homes, while creating sustainable, attractive and long-lasting communities.
New Home Building
2025 was the best year yet for the housing strategy period. The number of affordable homes completed last year was the largest number in more than 15 years – and the Council expects the 2025/26 financial year to be the largest delivery of any financial year going back to the mid 90s.
In 2025 alone, 2,993 new were delivered across the city, which means 31% of the 36,000 new homes target up to 2032 has already been achieved.
Of these, 791 homes were an affordable tenure, meaning 21% of the 10,000 affordable homes target have been delivered – and 59% of all affordable homes built were capped at the social rent level, compared to 30.6% at the beginning of the strategy period.
There remains a strong pipeline of housing development that will help meet the ambition of the housing strategy up to 2032, driven by strong partnership working and despite ongoing challenges in the construction market.
There are currently 1,459 affordable homes on site, which includes 814 (56%) social rent homes – with a further 2,704 homes with planning permission or with an application submitted, including 1,219 (45%) social rent homes.
And this pipeline will continue to be bolstered by the new Social & Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) as part of the June 2025 Spending Review – outlining a £39bn investment into affordable housing nationally with an expectation that 60% of the homes delivered through the fund will be social rent.
Housing Partnerships
Since the beginning of the housing strategy period, 86% of the affordable housing built has been delivered in partnership with the city’s Registered Providers using Homes England Funding and Council-owned land.
230 new affordable homes were delivered on Council land in 2025, and a range of key sites will continue this strong trend through 2026.
In the coming year, more than 880 affordable homes will either start on site or begin local consultation – with the majority capped at either a social rent or Manchester Living Rent level. (Find further detail in Notes to Editors)
The SAHP will also help social rent homes become more viable, particularly in the city centre. Maximising social and genuinely affordable housing in central locations will also be important in meeting the targets set in the housing strategy. To this end, the Council is already using city-owned land to support delivery, including 133 social rent homes at Salboy’s Viadux 2, affordable homes within the Church Street Car Park opportunity, and 250 new homes at Birley Fields in Hulme, which will have a focus on affordable housing.
Project 500
The innovative P500 approach demonstrates the strength of the Manchester Housing Provider Partnership (MHPP), which target smaller brownfield sites owned by the Council to deliver 100% affordable housing.
Across the two phases, 517 affordable homes will be delivered across 35 sites in 13 wards with 75% of the homes delivered at social rent, 20% at the Manchester Living Rent level and 5% made available for affordable home ownership.
In phase one (357 homes), 51 homes have already been completed with the remainder either on site or with planning permission. The final schemes will be on site by the end of 2026.
In phase two (160 homes across 12 sites), the first planning application was submitted in December 2025 with further consultation on remaining sites expected by end of 2026.
Project 500 has also achieved tangible social value outcomes, including 98 apprenticeships and job starts, over 100 apprenticeship weeks, 130 volunteering hours and nearly £12,000 donated to community groups.
Maximising Manchester’s Homes
Important to meeting the principles set out in the housing strategy is by using the existing homes in the city in the right ways to meet demand.
This includes ‘rightsizing’, which support residents to move out of larger Council homes into a property that better meets their needs. This can help reduce costs and make a property more manageable, while freeing up homes for families.
108 households were helped to rightsize last year, supported by a dedicated Council officers, with 67 benefitting from the Rightsizing Incentive Scheme – which helps with some of the costs associated with moving house. A further 432 households have expressed interest in rightsizing.
Further, 150 households have been rehoused in the last two years into wheelchair accessible and adapted homes, ensure that the people have an appropriate property that allows them to live more independently.
The Council will also soon consult on a new empty homes strategy to consider ways to encourage and support empty property owners to bring a home back into active use. While a programme will be launched in the coming weeks to help combat tenancy fraud, which takes homes out of the social rental market which otherwise could be homes for Manchester families. More information about these two schemes will be made available in the coming weeks.
Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and development, said:
“Our housing strategy was designed to be ambitious and to drive significant housing delivery across the city, including thousands of social rent, Council and genuinely affordable homes to help meet demand as Manchester’s population continues to grow.
“Four years in and we are already seeing positive progress against our targets and we know that our strong pipeline of major projects will continue to grow in the coming years. Our progress so far is a testament to the strong work partnerships we have in Manchester and the registered providers that are committed to delivering the homes our residents need.
“Building homes at scale – particularly social rent housing – remains a major challenge for cities across the UK, but we have created a really strong base of projects that will help accelerate new home building in the coming years.”
