Salford secures £2.75m for Eccles regen
Salford City Council has been granted an interest free loan to support the redevelopment of the town’s shopping centre.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority will provide £2.75m from its brownfield housing fund to support the first phase of the Eccles regeneration project.
The £2.75m loan is to fund acquisitions within Eccles to pave the way for its redevelopment.
The authority has been assembling the land it requires to redevelop Eccles town centre for several years. The first major purchase was of the 180,000 sq ft shopping centre itself. Salford bought this from Columbia Threadneedle in 2022 for around £4.15m.
Demolition of 66,000 sq ft of vacant retail units within the shopping centre to pave the way for the first phase of the project is underway.
The city council has also bought the 35,000 sq ft Charles House nearby for £2.5m and plans to knock it down to pave the way for development.
Salford plans to appoint a development partner later this year to bring forward the wholesale regeneration of its Eccles land holdings.
Salford City Council is not the only Greater Manchester borough in line for grant funding. Trafford Council has been allocated a combined £4.32m for 240 homes in Altrincham.
While This City, Manchester City Council’s housing development company, will get an extra £1m to complete No1 Ancoats Green.
A spokesperson for Manchester City Council said: “No1 Ancoats Green, delivered by This City on a former brownfield site, received this grant to support the company’s and council’s aspirations to deliver truly affordable rental homes operating at net zero carbon.
“The grant helped fund the installation of PV panels and the high building performance design needed to achieve the AECB certification which supports net zero, helps make homes affordable to operate, as well as provide 30% of homes at the truly affordable Manchester Living Rent levels.”
Eccles is completely struggling town and very few people who live in Eccles area seem not much poplar area anymore so need to building a commercial ground floor for doctor, dentist, food shops, little NHS service and young club, and need to build a school it very important for everyone who live those areas need more people and more jobs it will be excellent for Eccles area economy because of 25 storey building are approved and there 2 or 3 currently plans for building that area which is important for extra people need to make more approve life better for everyone.
By G J Kitchener
Hope when they develop Eccles they remember to put parking areas for all these new home as at the moment we only have 2 council carparks John Williams St & St Mary’s Rd would be nice for you to look into this problem…😯
By Mr Dixon
How does this loan work please? How can GMCA lend interest free – do they get money from rates/council tax? How does this work?
By Lizzy Baggot
@LizxyBsggot the loans are fairly simple to get your head around, they are a financial product, do the research, it’s not nefarious!
By Romslfo
SCC have spent £2.5m on an empty office block and they don’t know what they are going to put there yet. I hope it pays back on a ROI basis and the Salford council tax payers get a rebate on their council tax payments!
By Ian Thomson