Local Investment Agreement for Greater Manchester
Wednesday 29th June 2011
The second Greater
The HCA and AGMA have been working together to help support investment for housing in areas where it is most needed and where it will have the greatest economic impact. This latest 4-year agreement sets out future housing and regeneration priorities to co-ordinate investment across Greater Manchester, as well as covering the respective roles of partners in delivering their objectives;
LIA2 aims to follow on from the hugely successful first Agreement launched in December 2009, which, during its 15-month life, saw nearly £400m being invested across Greater Manchester. This included securing an additional £41m funding from the Agency for the development of 981 homes in Greater Manchester, as well as providing a welcome boost for local jobs.
Lord Peter Smith, Chair of AGMA, said:
“At a time when public funds are diminishing, we are delighted that all partners’ efforts through our first Agreement have resulted in nearly 1000 much-needed new homes for Greater Manchester. Our new Local Investment Agreement will be particularly important over the next few years, when our partnership with the HCA and others will be vital in enabling us to carry on our hard work to provide affordable homes for our residents, and to deliver our shared vision for the economic growth vital for the future of Greater Manchester.”
The nature of central government’s support for the provision of affordable housing is, however, changing fundamentally in this new financial year. The National Affordable Housing Programme, which previously covered a significant proportion of development costs of new social rented housing, has been replaced by the Affordable Homes Programme. This programme aims to offer more flexible tenancies at a rent higher than social rent, to be set at a maximum of 80% of local market rents. In addition to new stock, the new model also includes provision to convert a proportion of empty properties and existing social rented properties to Affordable Rent upon re-let. The higher rental income generated through these mechanisms must be used to subsidise new development.
Whilst HCA funding will, therefore, be considerably reduced, this still represents a significant stream of potential investment for Greater Manchester, and carries with it the opportunity to unlock further funds from the rental income on new and converted existing Affordable Rent properties. AGMA and the Agency will also be working closely on other options for generating investment, using the assets and skills that HCA can offer to boost our capacity to make continued progress. Despite the very difficult economic challenges ahead, work with all partners is continuing through the LIA2, and the associated Local Investment Plan (LIP2), launched in earlier in 2011, towards exploiting the opportunities offered, and achieving maximum outcomes from all funds available.
To view the Local Investment Agreement and Local Investment Plan see the related documents section of this page.
