HCA and councils redirect £30 million northern pot

Housing associations in Greater Manchester could get a share of a £30 million pot, administered by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. AGMA is made up of 10 councils in the north west of England.

It is looking to act because earlier this month, the HCA announced £400 million kick-start and £100 million LANB would not continue beyond final decisions about this year’s schemes as part of a £450 million cut to the agency’s budget.

Kick-start was designed to fund stalled house building schemes, while the local authority new build program-me was the first major council house building programme for decades.

The cuts have hit 23 schemes in the north west which had bid for kick-start and LANB funds.

But AGMA administers National Affordable Housing Programme funding as part of the local investment agreement for the Manchester City Region, £30 million of which remains unallocated for this year. An HCA spokesperson said the agency would work with AGMA to decide which of the schemes that had received approval by the HCA but had no contracted funding would be a priority.

Deborah McLaughlin, HCA regional director for the north west, said: ‘We are going to make it a priority to get schemes started between now and April. I would be surprised if we could find £30 million worth of schemes, but we will be looking at any schemes that did not get funded before the programmes were discontinued.’

Peter Schilizzi, chief executive of Arcon Housing Association in Manchester said a drop in funding available would affect two schemes the landlord had bid for in Stalybridge and Blackley.

‘We will probably buy the first one, landbank it and secure planning permission so that if they discover they have got a bit of money left over next year, we might be able to go ahead and build it,’ he added.

‘I feel sorry for larger providers who have got a big scheme going and might have to hold its first phase.’

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