Families have moved into their new homes in Trafford as part of a regeneration scheme from Arcon Housing Group launched by Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing, Planning and Homelessness, Paul Dennett.
Residents and stakeholders, including Joanne Hyde, Director of Transformation and Resources for Trafford Council, contractor Tyson Construction and Mike Stewart Architects, attended the launch at Humphrey Road alongside the specialist development team from Arcon Housing.
The scheme has delivered four new two-bed homes for shared ownership on a challenging infill site which had remained vacant for 25 years, after four terraced houses were demolished.
The design of the new homes is in keeping with the existing properties, with matching roof tiles and bricks.
Recent research conducted by Heriot-Watt University for the National Housing Federation indicated that 4m new homes need to be built across England by 2031 to meet an escalating housing crisis.
Speaking at the launch, Paul Dennett said: “We do have a broken housing market and what you’ve delivered here is what the Government refers to as affordable housing. Some of the families already live on this street who’ve decided to purchase here, which is a fantastic news story.
“There are huge challenges within Greater Manchester. We’ve recently signed a housing deal with the Government; we’ve committed ourselves to building 227,000 homes across the whole of Greater Manchester by 2035. One of the big challenges we have is small sites; this site has been vacant for 25 years. In many respects, it has been a blight on the community and now we have four homes going some way in meeting our housing need.
“I think what you have achieved here is absolutely phenomenal and at the prices in Trafford is absolutely fantastic. There aren’t a lot of housing associations doing this sort of infill work across Greater Manchester. I’m delighted to continue to work with you to meet our housing need within the city region. We are stronger together and the only way we will tackle the housing crisis is by working collaboratively across a range of tenure types.
“Doing this helps us protect our greenbelt, building on brownfield land, which has been vacant for a long time. Thank you so much for prioritising small infill sites; we need more of that happening across Greater Manchester.”
Bernard Gallagher, CEO of Arcon Housing Group, added: “In Manchester, land supply on a large scale is an issue with small infill sites often remaining the only viable option to housing developers such as ourselves. These small sites, if developed imaginatively, can help revive existing communities and make a real contribution to providing much needed new homes. This scheme is a great example of what good partnership work can produce, even in high demand areas such as Trafford, when the Council and ourselves work collaboratively.”
Pictured above are stakeholders at the launch of Arcon Housing Group’s new homes at Humphrey Road, Trafford, including Joanne Hyde, Director of Transformation and Resources for Trafford Council; Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing, Planning and Homelessness Paul Dennett; CEO of Arcon Housing Group Bernard Gallagher; Chair of Arcon Housing Group Board Chris Neill; Architect Mike Stewart; Contractor Jeremy Whittle, MD of Tyson Construction and other members of the Arcon Housing Group team.
