As waiting lists continue to climb across the country, one iconic Northern city has announced a major milestone in it’s mission to fight back with a healthy supply of affordable homes.
Manchester City Council has achieved another record year for building new affordable homes, four years into its ambitious 10-year housing strategy for the city.
Almost 1,000 of the 4,766 new homes completed across the city in 2025/26 were affordable, with 439 of these 901 affordable homes available for social rent.
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This represents the most successful year since the mid-1990s for social and affordable home building in the city, but there is still more work to be done as the city grapples with the wide-reaching impacts of the current housing crisis. Although much lower than other areas where housebuilding has stalled (The worst impacted areas have wait times that exceed a century), waiting lists for a one-bedroom social home in Manchester still come in at over 3.5 years, climbing to upwards of 10-12 years for larger properties.
There are around 1,450 further council, social and genuinely affordable homes already on site now with around 2,000 more such homes ready to start, and the council will be looking to secure another record-breaking year in 2026/27.
The Council set out its 10-year housing strategy in 2022 with a bold commitment to help deliver 36,000 homes across across all tenures and areas of the city with at least 10,000 of these social, council or genuinely affordable homes, and at least 3,000 of these in the city centre.
Leader of the Council Cllr Bev Craig said:
“We know that one of the main issues facing our residents is finding a home they can afford in a place where they want to live. We are committed to turning the tide by delivering record numbers of council, social and affordable homes and investing in vibrant and attractive neighbourhoods across the city. This means real choice.
“Headline schemes being brought forward across the city include 400 new homes for social rent in Wythenshawe town centre, 303 affordable homes as part of the Brewery Gardens development on the former Boddington’s site in the city centre, 271 new homes for social rent and shared ownership in Charlestown and 212 affordable homes in Moss Side.”
Cllr Gavin White, Executive Member for Housing and Development, said:
“Every Mancunian deserves a safe and secure home that they can afford. Which is why we are working closely with the city’s housing providers and the private sector to develop home building opportunities across the city to meet the needs of our residents – and importantly using council-owned land to increase the number of affordable homes available to Manchester people.
“We’re not waiting for someone to do it for us – we are creating ways to build the right homes in the right places to meet demand.”
