Labour’s candidate in Worsley and Eccles has said it is “wrong” to use the green belt to build “luxury” homes.
Michael Wheeler, 39, argued that two housing schemes by Peel Land in the area will not include enough affordable properties to help with Salford’s housing crisis.
Peel is currently building more than 1,000 new homes on Mosley Common, on the border of Salford and Wigan, with a further 295 homes planned on land east of Boothstown next to RHS Garden Bridgewater.
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Residents in Boothstown recently told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the area can’t handle more homes because local services are too stretched – with not enough dentists, doctors, or schools.
Locals also raised concerns over the affordability of the 295 homes planned by Peel, with the majority of these set to have four or five-bedrooms.
The scheme is located on green belt land being released under a Greater Manchester-wide housing programme – Places for Everyone – which Labour-run Salford council was the first in the region to adopt despite Conservative opposition.
But so far more than 1,400 objections have been sent to Salford council over Peel’s Boothstown plans.
Mr Wheeler, who grew up in the Worsley and Eccles constituency, said that while new developments are needed to tackle the housing crisis in Salford, they have to be at affordable prices.
He told the LDRS: “We’re facing a housing crisis so somewhere there needs to be more housing for people. It’s a genuine crisis and it is wrong that the aspirations of homeownership for many young people is just off the table.
“But when you look at these developments in particular, they are not affordable homes, they are not first-time-buyer homes, they’re not starter homes, they are going to do very little, if not nothing, to tackle that crisis.
“The vast majority of these developments are four-bed or five-bed luxury homes. In that circumstance, I think those developments are wrong.
“Green space is incredibly important and we need to do whatever we can to protect it. That needs to be balanced against the very real housing crisis.
“If someone was to come forward with genuine plans for social homes, new council homes like Salford is building, affordable homes, then we would have to take a long hard look at it and around the appropriateness of any development, but there are still places where even that might be inappropriate.”
The Worsley and Eccles constituency covers a number of semi-rural towns and villages in the borough of Salford such as Boothstown, as well as districts from the Astley Mosley Common area which falls under the borough of Wigan.
Average house prices in Boothstown are more than £300,000 according to real estate firm Rightmove – nearly double the £168,000 in Langworthy, central Salford.
Around 20 percent of Peel’s planned 295 homes next to RHS Garden Bridgewater are set to be designated as affordable, with a financial contribution from the firm providing a further 30pc as ‘off-site provision.’
For the homes being built at Mosley Common, around 25pc are affordable according to planning documents.
Alongside Peel’s housing developments, Salford council is planning to build 600 new homes for social rent, through its own development-arm Dérive.
But Mr Wheeler, a former councillor, added that new private developments in the borough without enough affordable homes or services for residents are creating more problems than they solve.
He said: “Services are important, we see the new development at Mosley Common where there is a big new health centre, there was funding to expand the local primary school, there were shops and facilities put in, which doesn’t mitigate all of the issues around a very rapidly increasing population, but it’s the sort of approach that’s the minimum that must be taken to make new developments at least sustainable.
“What we’re seeing at the minute isn’t doing anything to resolve any of our problems, it’s probably causing more.
“This is where you come to Labour’s manifesto and the national plans, they’re committed to looking at the planning system, committed to tackling the housing crisis, but at a very strategic level, not ad hoc developments done in the best interests of the developers.
“It needs to be in the best interests of local people, people that are struggling to get on the housing ladder, and the people that are struggling to find any sort of home at all.”
A spokesperson for Peel Land said: “The Mosley Common and East Boothstown sites are now allocated under Places for Everyone as part of Wigan and Salford Councils’ respective development plans.
“The principle of developing the sites for new family and affordable homes and supporting infrastructure and green space is now clearly established and our proposals seek to deliver in line with those adopted policies.
“We would be pleased to meet with Mr Wheeler to explain the proposals and understand his concerns if he is elected as the local MP.”