House building plan costing £4.8m approved by town hall bosses

Friday, 22 August 2025 16:55

By George Lythgoe

Millions will be spent building thousands of new homes across Rochdale to address the housing crisis.

Town hall bosses, who declared a housing emergency back in 2023, have approved £4.779m for the Housing Supply Programme over the next two years. Rochdale council’s cabinet would also commit to working towards a cumulative £25m budget for the programme – expected to run until 2030.

The cash will be used to ramp up housebuilding in the borough, the latest cabinet meeting in Number One Riverside heard.

Strategic housing lead at the council, Stewart Morris, explained that larger family homes are lacking and the local authority will look into supporting these developments as part of this process. He added how this could involve using council-owned land to unlock some of these sites for housing.

Coun Danny Meredith, regeneration and housing boss, added: “This is what members and the public have been asking for, for years – to start developing on brownfield sites.

“A lot of people in our borough need housing and this is how we address that issue.”

The local authority currently has a housebuilding target of 616 homes per year, set by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA). But that is expected to rise following the government announcing a new annual target of 918 homes recently.

At the moment, Rochdale is delivering 609 homes per year on average.

A cabinet report read: “It therefore becomes clear that a period of acceleration of delivery of homes is required, and of this the related acceleration of affordable housing units will become significantly more important.

“The demand for social/affordable housing is critical amongst younger people, making up over half of the current demand.

“On this basis alone the need for affordable housing will rise at an accelerated rate as those individuals remain un-housed or inappropriately housed, with the next generation inflating demand still further.”

The housing situation is critical in Rochdale.

Council papers revealed that over 20,000 people are on the housing waiting list and 430 children are living in temporary accommodation due to homelessness and the lack of permanent accommodation to move them to.

Council papers added: “In 2024 there were 813 social properties let via the Housing Register, which represents just over 15 properties per week.

“Of the 813 social properties let in 2024 only 15 in total were 4+ bedroom properties. Larger families, particularly those with disabled children, are the cohort most likely to wait the longest for suitable accommodation, if it becomes available at all.”

It is hoped through the recent government of £2bn in investment, that an estimated £1.2bn to £1.5bn would become available via the Homes England Social Affordable Homes Programme (‘SAHP’).

This would allow more affordable housing developments to be funded and brought forward.