Manchester submits plans for debut This City project
Designed by Buttress Architects, the 128-home project off Rodney Street in Ancoats will be the first to be delivered by the city council’s newly formed housing delivery company.
Manchester City Council formed This City earlier this year with the aim of delivering 500 homes annually to support the authority’s target of 36,000 new homes in the next decade.
This City’s maiden scheme will provide a mix of properties ranging from one-bedroom apartments to four-bedroom townhouses.
The 118 apartments will be delivered across two blocks of eight and five storeys and will be built alongside 10 three-storey townhouses.
Around 30% of the homes will be available at the Manchester Living Rent.
This means that the rents for these homes will be set at or below the Local Housing Allowance level – as set by central government – and so will be accessible to people on full housing benefit, according to the city council.
Avison Young is advising the city council on planning and Wates Construction has been appointed as main contractor. Layer.studio is the landscape architect and
The Rodney Street development is to be funded by borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board.
The city council has approved £33m of borrowing to finance the Ancoats project and the second scheme, an 82-home development on Postal Street, first revealed by Place North West.
Bring back council house building like post war years without the right to buy and so provide affordable homes that young people can afford to live in and importantly afford to have families in.The current wages to mortgage ratio and students loan debt is why you see lots young people but fewer and fewer children in Manchester.
By Anonymous
No balconies I see? Did they forget to add them in or do they just think that people who live in flats either don’t need or don’t deserve some private outdoor space to relax in?
By Balcony watch
totally unimaginative, why are so few city centre flats without balconies ?
By Anonymous
@Balcony watch – are you blind? they all have Juliet balconies
By Juliet
Won’t win any architectural prizes will it
By BDAY
More of the same. Looks like a prison. And where are the balconies?
By John
More blanditecture than architecture
By Anonymous
Juliet balconies just allow a resident to open a window without falling out, they do not provide outdoor space
By Anonymous
Section 4.10 Private Open Space (POS) in the guide requires all dwellings to be provided with adequate private open space in the form of a garden, terrace, balcony or winter garden. POS standards consider space requirements for furniture, access and activities relating to the number of occupants.
A minimum of 5 sqm of private outdoor space is required for all 2 person dwellings with an extra 1 sqm for each additional occupant. The minimum width and depth for all balconies and private external spaces is 1500mm. The dimensions aim to provide space sufficient for a meal around a small table, clothes drying, or for a family to sit outside with visitors.
The above is taken from the guidelines London uses – and this section specifically relates to balconies/outdoor space. Why cant Manchester and Salford adopt something similar. When I go to London you immediately notice how the vast majority of new build apartment blocks have quite generous balconies.
By Manc Man
Great insight Manc Man – I wonder if Place could pick this up with the planning department? We are building thousands of new homes and to not include or mandate the inclusion of POS seems to be incredibly short sighted bordering on negligent. I do hope this is not for reasons as shallow as someone’s individual aesthetic preferences.
By Balcony watch
Balcony Watch and Manc Man – I refer you to page 116 of the ‘Manchester Residential Quality Guidance’. Whilst I refer you there I can’t advise you why this development doesn’t comply.
By UnaPlanner
Juliet balconies are literally balconies by name. Balcony watch’s original comment stated he/she/they couldn’t see any balconies, which there are plenty of!
By Juliet