MP forces housing funds climbdown

Oldham MP Jim McMahon: forced housing climbdown

AN intervention from Oldham MP Jim McMahon saw the Government backtracking on a stance that would have blocked Greater Manchester from additional housing money following devolution.

As part of the deal the region was given a £300 million housing investment fund to unlock stalled residential schemes. To date the fund has been primarily used to support the development of private apartment schemes in Manchester city centre.

The challenge for many parts of Greater Manchester is the need to bring forward brownfield sites which are not attractive to developers because they are not commercially viable.

The investment fund requires that all schemes are commercially viable, that the developer is credit worthy and interest rates are set at a commercial level.

Mr McMahon said: “I am committed to fighting for urban renewal and positive development in our communities. To do this we will need to create a programme which addresses the fact that some sites are simply not attractive to developers because of the cost of bringing them to market and removing former contamination, for instance.”

Mr McMahon wrote to Housing Minister Brandon Lewis to ask what support would be available and was told because Greater Manchester had received the housing investment fund as part of the devolution agreement it would not be eligible for future government housing funds.

Mr McMahon raised the issue with officals, who were clear this was not the case. Within a week the Housing Minister was forced to backtrack.

Research undertaken by the House of Commons Library highlighted that almost 3,000 hectares of brownfield land remains undeveloped in Greater Manchester.