Greater Manchester Housing Providers (GMHP) and local authorities come together to discuss ambitious future plans for the city region

BBC News Home Editor, Mark Easton was a guest speaker at an event last week which saw Greater Manchester Housing Providers come together with local authorities to discuss how they tackle some of the key housing challenges facing Greater Manchester.

Made up of 26 housing organisations across the region, including Salix Homes, Easton heralded the GM Housing Providers’ Ambition to Deliver as a “huge step in the right direction” of how housing providers can work together in devolved regions to tackle the housing crisis facing many areas of the UK.

Launched last year by GMHP, the Ambition to Deliver is a manifesto setting out how the housing providers can work together with other agencies on their five priority areas for the city region: new homes, health and social care, work and skills, Greater Manchester economy and homelessness.

Hosted by the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC), the event provided an opportunity for participants to hear from key regional figures including: City Mayor of Salford, Paul Dennett, Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker and Chief Executives representing the GM Housing Providers. Speakers discussed the GMHP’s commitment, key achievements and future plans.

Mark Easton, BBC News Home Editor said: “The delivery of desperately needed new homes will not deal with the problem unless it is done in concert with many other service providers and agencies across a region. That is why this conference, and the collective work of Greater Manchester Housing Providers to bring partners together, is so vital. We really do need to talk about how we are going to build a Greater Manchester and GMHP’s Ambition to Deliver is huge step in that direction.”

Lee Sugden, Chief Executive of GMHP member Salix Homes and NHC Board Director said: “This is an exciting time for Greater Manchester. We’ve seen significant achievements since 2012, both within our individual organisations and as a partnership, demonstrating that housing providers can hold the key for meeting some of the big challenges facing the city region.

“We know however that we can’t do this alone, and building on our close relationships with the 10 local authorities across Greater Manchester will be crucial to GMHP playing a major role in delivering the 227,000* more homes needed across the city region over the next 20 years.

“Last week’s conference marks a pivotal moment on that journey and we are encouraged to see a shared commitment across our local authorities.

“Greater Manchester has long been a place of firsts and GMHP are leading the way nationally for how housing providers can work together with devolved authorities to deliver the priorities for a region and the people who live there.”

The ambitious plans include commitments to double the delivery of new homes, invest in solutions for an ageing population, invest in more than 1,000 new apprentices and tackle homelessness by intervening in the private rented sector to provide better quality and more suitable temporary accommodation.