A new ‘affordable housing scheme’ will see a total of 90 homes built at Regents Industrial Estate near Islington Mill, as part of a deal between the council and English Cities Fund.
The land was bought by Salford council in 2008 to support regeneration works in the city.
A provisional funding allocation for the work has been secured from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s Brownfield Housing Fund.
The new homes will be bought by Dérive – a housing firm owned by the town hall. The scheme includes 27 townhouses and 63 apartments built to a “Passivhaus certified” low carbon specification.
This aims to make sure they are cheaper to heat for residents, and will result in ‘significantly lower than average emissions.’
The work has been planned with support from the Islington Mill Arts Club, with two existing commercial units being retained for ‘cultural uses.’
Salford’s deputy city mayor noted the provisionally agreed terms of the agreement at a town hall meeting on July 8. At the same meeting, councillors agreed to approve the sale of 18 houses to Dérive on the former Harrop Fold school site on Longshaw Drive in Little Hulton.
This is part of a wider scheme which will see a further 159 ‘mixed tenure homes’ built at the site.
Coun Philip Cusack said there is an “acute need for housing” in Salford and that the Longshaw Drive plan would be “to the benefit of the people of Salford and the area of Little Hulton.”
Coun Teresa Pepper added:
“It’s a very welcome development and I look forward to them being up.”
Housing supply is a major issue in Salford, with the city facing a “crisis” according to city mayor Paul Dennett.
The town hall has seen growing numbers of people presenting as homeless, citing a lack of affordable housing available.
Salford council recently adopted a Greater Manchester-wide plan for housing – Places for Everyone – which aims to build thousands of new homes around the borough over the next 15 years.
A mix of land will be used for the scheme, including some green belt, but this has caused concerns among residents in the semi-rural outskirts of the borough such as Worsley and Boothstown.
Labour MP Michael Wheeler, who represents the Worsley and Eccles constituency, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week that schemes building luxury homes on the green belt are “wrong”, and that green spaces should be protected.
He added that developments for social housing on the green belt would need a ‘long hard look’ before starting work.
Conservative councillors in Salford have also criticised house building schemes on green belt land in the Worsley area, such as a plan to build 400 houses on Hazelhurst Farm – a large plot of green space between the M60 and East Lancs road.
Leader of the opposition at Salford council, Coun Robin Garrido, previously said development at Hazelhurst could see hundreds of extra cars on the road, adding to local congestion.
