A new poll by Salford Now shows 45 per cent of respondents are concerned with the cost of housing in Greater Manchester.

The survey also highlighted concerns by many about the availability of housing in Salford, as well as the transport links and infrastructure in the area.

This comes after Peel Group’s latest appeal to reverse Salford City Council’s refusal for planning permission on its proposed Broadoak development recently failed.

After more than five years of appeals, high court challenges and public inquiries, Peel Group’s appeals have been quashed by the Secretary of State. The proposal included building 600 new houses on a greenbelt site in Broadoak, near Monton and Worsley.

At the same time, Salford City Mayor Paul Dennett is criticising a new seven billion pound affordable housing program. Analysis showed that London and areas in the south-east will benefit more than areas in the north. From the 162 authorities eligible for the new funding 80% of funding will go to those in London and surrounding areas as they qualified for ‘priority funding’.

 

This happened in the same week Dennett fired back at Bolton MP Chris Green’s comments on the region’s housing strategy. Green said regional leaders were “faffing around” after further delays to the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework over population figures and estimates for housing numbers.

On Tuesday, in an open letter to the Conservative MP, Dennett criticised the government’s behaviour when addressing the issue of the inaccurate Local Housing Need figures which the housing portion of the GMSF relies on: “May I therefore politely suggest that Greater Manchester leaders and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority are certainly not “wasting time”, nor are they “faffing around” and our desire to be decisive is being significantly hampered by a lack of clarity from the Government.”

As the government aimed to build over 300,000 new homes a year the original estimate in the GSMF was for 211,000 homes to be built in Greater Manchester over the next 20 years. But, differing figures has brought that down to roughly 154,000 homes over that 20-year period.

The GMSF has been faced issues and delays since it was revealed in 2016, as Dennett wrote in his letter to Green: “GMSF has been delayed four times already and could now be delayed for a fifth, dragging out the process for years.”

The largest concern for Salford residents is how the government funding program and the differences between local and national government will slow down developments in housing in the area, which could lead to worsen conditions in Salford housing and prices.

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