GMCA to allocate £41m to remediate brownfield sites for 2,700 homes

An analysis by the Northern Housing Consortium found that the majority of funding has been delivered to city regions in the North, which shared a combined £275m.

At the time of announcing the fund, the government said the money would be given to “pro-development councils and ambitious mayoral combined authorities with the aim of creating more homes by bringing more brownfield land into development”.

Paul Dennett, mayor of Salford and GMCA lead for housing, planning and homelessness, said: “We have always said that we want to bring forward the most sustainable brownfield areas across our city region for development, and with the Brownfield Housing Fund we’re doing exactly that.

“As we continue to prioritise our response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in our communities, towns and cities, we also need to take action at the same time to build a better and fairer future for all of our residents.

“This is in addition to seeing ongoing development as an important part of our economic recovery plan from COVID-19, creating and sustaining jobs, traineeships and apprenticeships within Greater Manchester’s construction industry.

“This funding will allow us to regenerate brownfield sites, support districts in working towards meeting national government targets, and deliver just shy of 2,500 good-quality affordable homes, helping us to address the under-supply of housing and meet growing need.

“However, while we welcome this contribution, it remains the case that affordability as defined by the government does not always translate into affordability for our residents, and further funding will be needed to deliver genuinely affordable homes across Greater Manchester to tackle the housing and homelessness crisis we face.”