Bev’s manifesto for a good home you can afford
A good home you can afford
A good home is the foundation of a good life. Greater Manchester needs homes for the people who live and work here, not just flats for investors or developments local families are priced out of. I know first hand the security a council house brings and my mission will be to deliver more council, social and affordable homes than we have done in over a generation - homes people here can genuinely afford to rent or to buy. We will make housing more affordable, protect and grow the green spaces our children and future generations deserve, and use every power we have to tackle homelessness — because no one should be without a safe place to sleep.
Read the full manifestoBuild 50,000 new council and genuinely affordable homes by 2039 in every borough with 10,000 delivered, under construction or in the pipeline by May 2028.
Always brownfield land first, with a new brownfield land fund and a devolved remediation fund to unlock the trickiest sites.
Give Greater Manchester people a priority: ensuring homes funded through our good growth funding are for Greater Manchester people and giving Greater Manchester people priority for new affordable homes built with local funding. This also applies in social housing with the roll out of local lettings policies in our communities.
Limit HMOs in areas with too many, easing overcrowding and anti-social behaviour, by expanding Article 4 directions on small HMOs.
A GM Wide Renters Rights Unit to support renters, enforce the Renters Rights Act and take action on bad landlords.
Strengthen the Good Landlord Charter and requiring any landlord who wants local funding, such as retrofit schemes, to sign up to it.
A special commission on Affordable Rents: The UK has not devolved powers for rent controls, I will call for national powers and in the meantime set up a Commission on Rents: to look at how rent limits, caps or controls would work for Greater Manchester.
A new No Empty Homes plan: within the first 100 days set up a Greater Manchester wide Empty Homes Team to conduct an emergency audit of empty homes across Greater Manchester and a plan to get them back in use (Manchester has already brought over 500 empty homes back into use). Where needed we will take control of empty and derelict homes by securing powers to force their sale, deploying Empty Dwelling Management Orders, and using compulsory purchase.
A new veterans’ support and housing package, giving the armed forces community top priority by accelerating the Armed Forces Covenant.
Student Housing Plan: work with our universities, students union and students for a new Student housing plan with good quality homes students can afford.
Roll our retrofit GM programme to make homes warmer and cheaper to run, starting with the coldest and costliest to heat.
Transparent Planning process and introducing a Green Space Guarantee on developers.
Homelessness
In a rich country like ours, no one should be stuck on the streets
Get more people off the streets: expand A Bed Every Night, launching holistic support in every borough, fast-tracking rough-sleeping veterans, and keeping the Mayor’s Charity focused on ending homelessness
Prevent homelessness in the first place: expand the Youth Homelessness pilot and the Centrepoint Independent living scheme for young people, an early advice service across Greater Manchester
Reduce families stuck families in temporary accommodation, make B&B use for families and exception and reduce out-of-borough placements to keep families in their communities.