Salford proposes Ordsall land transfer
Council members will next week be asked to rubber-stamp a nil-value deal, which will allow MSV to develop a replacement 60-bed extra care facility at Mount Carmel Court.
Salford City Council’s property & regeneration briefing on Monday 9 November will consider a report outlining the details of the proposed land transfer.
As set out by officers, it provides a summary of the latest scheme design and viability appraisal, showing that the scheme is reliant on a nil value council land transfer to enable development.
Further, the report goes into the challenges being faced by the council and providers in bringing forward extra care delivery in Salford, outlining the benefit to the council in using an asset to support development of this type.
The council-owned Mount Carmel Crescent site lies adjacent to Mount Carmel Court, an extra care scheme owned and managed by Mosscare St Vincents Housing (MSV). This facility has a capacity of 36 people, and as of May 2026 was housing 29 people.
Subject to the development of a new scheme, the current extra care scheme – described as in need of modernisation – will be decommissioned, and residents would be decanted across to the new scheme following its completion.
This would then allow the old site to be redeveloped, for another form of affordable residential accommodation, with MSV currently working up proposals for a “general needs” apartment scheme.
MSV has been in talks since 2023 with the council over possible investment options, including redevelopment of the site and potential for expanding the extra care offer in this part of the city.
While MSV has been working up a detailed scheme and looking at viability, SCC’s property services team has let the site on a short-term flexible basis, generating rental income.
However, stressed officers, the development of new high-quality extra care units remains a strategic priority. SCC has indicated a projected need for 605 units of extra care housing by 2035, with a current shortfall of 294 units.
MSV’s proposal for 60 units has been arrived at following discussions with SCC’s adult social care team and consulting the council’s housing strategy.
MSV has, said the report, “rationalised” some traditional features of extra care such as treatment rooms and a café bistro offer, which will “not impact on the overall benefit of the new scheme against the existing scheme”.
All the units across the scheme have been modelled at a social rent, the preferred tenure choice for both MSV and the council, with initial appraisals identifying a significant gap in viability.
To bridge this gap, grant rates with external funders have been maximised in discussion with Homes England and GMCA. Given the grant levels being requested are already high, MSV has made it clear that acquiring the land at nil cost would be the determining factor between the scheme being viable or unviable.
