Trafford Housing Trust and London housing association L&Q have formed a joint venture to build 2,000 new homes across Greater Manchester and the North West over the next four years.
The partners are putting in £80m each to fund the initiative, which marks L&Q’s first partnership outside the South East.
It will enable a faster pace of housebuilding in the region and enable larger, more complex projects to be delivered, and will also expand the Trust’s footprint beyond Trafford to incorporate projects in other Greater Manchester boroughs such as Stockport and Salford, with a plan to develop further schemes across the North West including projects in Cheshire and Cumbria.
Initially the joint venture aims to develop around 500 new homes a year, 25% of which will be affordable new homes designed for first time buyers, with around 25% for affordable rent and the remainder to be available for market rent and sale.
Any profits generated from the joint venture will be re-invested back into the local area to create more homes for local people in the years ahead.
Matthew Gardiner, chief executive of Trafford Housing Trust, said: “We know that good quality affordable housing to rent and to own provides a sense of safety and financial security for the many people currently living in unsatisfactory conditions.
“It is clear that the combination of Trafford Housing Trust’s knowledge of the local housing market with L&Q’s formidable capacity as a house builder, and our shared vision to create neighbourhoods people want to live in, will result in a unique and exciting offering at scale to the North West housing market.”
In 2015 the Trust launched a dedicated property arm, Laurus Homes, which has already delivered a number of new build residential schemes in and around Trafford for outright sale.
Its first completed scheme for outright sale is Arcon Place in Altrincham.
