Council plans to bring thousands of homes to borough – buy how many are actually affordable?

Oldham council wants to fight its housing crisis with thousands of new homes to be built across the borough.

The local authority’s latest housing report sets out all the ‘key housing sites’ where new homes could be built – totalling more than 12,600. 

More than half of those would be council-owned or built in partnership with the council – but that doesn’t mean all will be ‘affordable’ for Oldhamers. 

The borough is at breaking point with its housing demand. More than 8,100 residents applied for social housing last year – with only 1,200 homes available.

And almost 600 people are currently living in temporary accommodation.  

In the private sector, residents are struggling to cope with rising rents and house prices have risen faster in the borough than anywhere else in Greater Manchester. 

The figures are at odds with the wage rate in the area, which is below average – meaning many people who work struggle to afford their own home or cover rent or mortgage payments.

At a Cabinet meeting, where coun Elaine Taylor presented the Housing Delivery Action Plan, the housing lead said it would ‘help address Oldham’s housing crisis’ because “a good proportion of the houses to be delivered over the next few years will be affordable.” 

The council have found sites to build more than 3,400 homes on land they own, which gives the local authority ‘greater autonomy over their development’, according to the report. In current plans, around 18 percent of the homes (626) due to be built are earmarked for social housing and 22 pc (746) will be ‘other types of affordable homes’ such as shared ownership and affordable rent. 

Around 2,000 of the homes will be privately owned by the council or sold off. Some of these projects are already underway, with more than 1,500 expected to be built before 2028. 

The local authority is also supporting a number of ‘council partners’ to deliver homes across the area. These could amount to more than 2,990 homes on 15 sites across the district. 

They include Beal Valley and Broadbent Moss under a ‘controversial’ development scheme agreed between nine of the Greater Manchester authorities. 

The exact breakdown of how much social housing, affordable housing and private development hasn’t been determined yet as many of the projects haven’t been finalised. The developers who have been through the planning process have promised up to 132 social homes and 200 affordable homes – though this could change.

But the current plan for 758 still undershoots the demand by several thousand homes – and could take several years to complete. The local authority’s aim is to complete 500 of the homes in the next five years. 

There are also 389 sites where more than 6,240 homes could be developed privately. So far only 885 homes are under construction and around 1,250 have planning permission, with 263 affordable homes included. 

In total, the council should see around 760 social housing projects and more than a thousand ‘affordable homes’. 

In development, ‘affordable homes’ often refers to homes that are sold or rented at 20 pc below market prices. But in areas with high house prices and rents, that figure can still be unattainable for many. 

The report showed that Oldham has met around 90 pc of its house-building targets over the past three years. Boroughs who undershoot their targets by more than five pc are required to come up with an action plan to meet targets in the future.

Coun Taylor said the council’s intention was ‘not only to meet the 95 pc mark but meet and even exceed 100 pc’.