THE BEST HOUSING IN BRITAIN 

The Labour Government has provided an additional £140 million over 5 years to transform private housing and to create better neighbourhoods.  This investment will help achieve our aim of providing more opportunity for residents to move up-market without moving out of the City.  We have successfully lobbied Government to continue to fund Housing Market Renewal with substantial additional funding so that this can continue and more facelift schemes can be carried out.

Empty houses cause huge problems for local people because they become a magnet for illegal activities and are usually a major source of nuisance.  Manchester Labour has ensured that the Labour Council adopts measures that will reduce the number of empty properties using all the available legislative powers.  The Labour Council has already reduced the number of privately owned empty homes bringing them back into occupation (over 1,700 in the past five years) and has agreed with the Labour Government ambitious targets for increasing the number of vacant unfit and blighted properties that are returned to occupation.

Manchester Labour has been at the forefront of tackling poor private landlords.   The Council has introduced Private Sector Licensing for (mandatory licensable) Houses in Multiple Occupation and has begun to introduce Selective Licensing of other privately rented housing by area on a phased basis, starting with those areas with the greatest problems.

We recognize the need for affordable rented housing and will encourage developers to include a proportion of dwellings designated as ‘affordable’ or to provide funding for development of affordable housing elsewhere in the city. We are working with the Strategic Housing Partnership to develop shared ownership options for new households to access “intermediate” affordable housing.

We want to make sure that Manchester’s tenants live in the most modernised, warm and secure housing in Britain.  We will guarantee a local focus for decision-making and give tenants greater control and influence over the future and the level of services they can expect.  New structures for investing in and managing housing are being put in place.  They are not for profit local housing companies, an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) in North Manchester, and Private Finance Initiatives (PFI).  They only go ahead on the basis of the support of a majority of the tenants.  Multi million pound investment programmes are rolling across North Manchester, Ardwick, Miles Platting, South Manchester and Wythenshawe.  We have secured millions of pounds of gap funding to support further transfers later this year in the Inner South and East areas of the City. Tens of thousands of tenants in Manchester are able to gain the resulting benefits of modernized kitchens and bathrooms, double glazing and other home and environmental improvements.

The Council will still have strategic responsibility for housing and the Labour Party will make sure that the Labour Council builds stronger sustainable communities in better neighbourhoods by actively monitoring all the standards agreed with tenants and the new housing providers.

We are tackling issues of affordable housing in the city and reviewing our allocations policies. We will be developing a Housing Opportunities scheme in both social rented and approved private rented housing to maximize the possibilities for Manchester residents seeking affordable rented housing. We are looking at new ways of helping people get a foot on the housing ladder, and pressing the Government to prioritise the provision of more affordable housing.

We continue working with vulnerable people to support them living independently, prevent homelessness and make our communities more sustainable.