One of the big wins for Greater Manchester’s council leaders from their first devolution deal in 2014 was a £300m recyclable pot of cash for housing.
The money is specifically for private sector housing only – not social housing – and leaders have decided to pay it out in loans to developers to get projects off the ground.
Council leaders argue that the fund is a very useful lever in tackling the region’s housing crisis and regenerating areas that might have otherwise remained dormant.
They plan the money to be used at least twice over, ultimately creating £1.5bn worth of new high quality housing at a time when the region - and Manchester in particular - is rushing to solve its shortage. More than a third of the pot has been lent so far.
Loans have been granted for more than 1,100 new flats and homes across the conurbation, although most of them are in Manchester, Salford and Trafford, with one in Oldham plus one in Bury due to be agreed today.
Some of the recipients of that cash have raised eyebrows, however – including developers such as Peel and Fred Done who appear to have plenty of money in the bank already - while much of it doesn't include any affordable housing.
Around £100m of the pot has already paid for new upmarket apartments in and around the city centre.
More recently mayoral hopeful Andy Burnham suggested the pot, much of which has already be lent, should be used instead to compulsorily purchase run-down rentals to be sold on to first time buyers who are struggling to find deposits.
But here is what the fund – £113m of which has so far been paid out – has gone on so far.
Pomona Island, Trafford: 160 apartments, £10.3m
The most controversial of all the developments handed cash from the loan pot.
Environmentalists were furious because it meant a loss of an open habitat, including a wildflower meadow.
Some said the designs were of an extremely poor quality, while others were furious that a project by development giant Peel should be handed public cash.
Others pointed to the fact its loan was granted by the GMCA in private before the scheme had even been granted planning permission, raising the suspicion that approval was treated as a foregone conclusion despite the quasi-judicial status of the planning process.
Nonetheless, 164 apartments were approved for Pomona Island by both Trafford and Manchester councils last November.
Trinity Way, Salford: 380 apartments, £17.3m
Bookie magnate and developer Fred Done was granted a huge loan last year to get this project, around the former Blackfriars pub on the border with Manchester, off the ground.
Like the Pomona Island development, some wondered whether Done – whose recent other schemes include the flagship One and Two Peters Square developments, the latter sold on for £100m last summer – really needed the capital.
But the loan was granted from the housing fund and will see the Grade II-listed landmark converted into offices and a management suite for two new blocks of apartments on either side – one 17 and one 13 storeys.
It will also include a new public square, although Mr Done successfully argued he should not have to pay £1.2m towards new bus stops originally demanded by Salford council, arguing they would make the project unviable.
Edinburgh Castle, Ancoats: 21 apartments, £3.5m
Granted a loan at last month’s combined authority meeting, the Edinburgh Castle project will bring back to life a Victorian pub on the back streets of Ancoats that has lain dormant for several years.
Developers First Step plan to reopen the Blossom Street pub as a real ale destination, while the loan will be used to provide a mixture of new housing next to it.
In total 21 new apartments will be built – most of them in ten new townhouses – as well as a restaurant.
Those will be built on the site of the old Woodies Backpacker hostel, which will be demolished for the project, at the heart of the Ancoats conservation area.
Manchester council granted planning permission for the development last summer.
Water Street, Manchester/Salford border: 307 apartments, £23.7m
Plans for this major development off Regents Road were originally submitted in 2014 .
The project – which stands at the gateway to both Manchester and Salford, on the old Harry Ramsden’s site – will include a 28-storey tower of apartments, according to the application agreed by Manchester council.
Next to it will sit two smaller blocks of apartments, with six townhouses in front.
Designed by the architects behind Student Castle on Oxford Road – controversial at the time due to its height – the block is one of a series of tall buildings planned for around Manchester city centre.
None of the flats will be affordable housing, according to the plans from the time.
Manchester’s conservation panel wasn’t impressed with the designs and there were a number of complaints from residents about the potential impact on traffic around one of Manchester’s busiest thoroughfares.
However it was approved, with the caveat that the developer pay for infrastructure improvements in the city centre.
Tarrif Street, Piccadilly Basin: 91 apartments, £9.7m
This Ian Simpson-designed project was given planning approval in 2014, despite objections from 50 neighbours who claimed it was ‘driven by greed’ .
Earmarked for a piece of open green space on the banks of the Rochdale canal, the luxury apartment block would stand at 11 storeys and feature one, two and three-bed flats.
Its planning permission was only granted for three years however – and that was 18 months ago.
The project, which sits next to the listed Jackson’s Warehouse, is planned for a piece of grass currently used by neighbours for sunbathing.
There were also objections to its height and design.
But the plot sits at the heart of the Piccadilly Basin regeneration area and was given approval, before getting a loan from the combined authority last year.
Woodfield Road, Altrincham: 32 apartments, £3.8m
Woodfield Road, off the A56 in Broadheath, Altrincham, is earmarked for 32 new apartments and nine townhouses by developer Laurus.
It will include communal gardens and is due to be finished by the end of this year, according to the developer’s website.
It is unclear whether any of it will be affordable housing.
The development was one of several to be handed cash by the combined authority last summer, when it was still agreeing its loans in private.
Since then it has started publishing details publicly of its proposed recipients before the decision is taken.
Wilburn Street basin, Salford: 491 apartments, £42.5m
Nearly two years ago developers unveiled plans for a massive development of nearly 500 apartments – as well as shops and offices – on previously council-owned wasteland in a river basin near Manchester city centre.
It will include a mixture of one, two and three-bed apartments aimed at young professionals and sits near another major Salford development site, Middlewood Locks.
Salford council granted planning permission in November 2014.
No affordable housing appears to be planned.
In February this year the combined authority granted a loan of more than £40m – just under a sixth of the total pot and the biggest single sum handed out so far – to developers WB Developments, set up by Renaker boss Daren Whitaker, for the massive project.
Charminster Drive, Crumpsall: 23 houses, £960,000
The only Manchester development outside of the city centre to get help from the fund so far, this project is currently under construction and will see nearly two dozen homes created for sale.
Oldham-based developers Wiggetts received just under £1m to get the project underway, on a patch of land next to North Manchester General Hospital that was at one point owned by a food manufacturer.
Planning permission for the site was granted by Manchester council last year.
Boundary Park, Oldham: 20 houses, £1.45m
One of only two developments outside of Manchester, Salford or Trafford to get a loan so far, this project by Roman Investments will see 20 three-bed semi-detached homes built next to the Oldham Athletic ground.
It means just 1pc of the funding handed out by council leaders so far is for projects outside of the traditional investment-heavy heartlands of the city centre, its Salford border and Trafford.
Whether that is because no developers are bidding for loans, or because the ones that do are being turned down, is not immediately obvious due to the lack of detail around the lending provided by the combined authority – this was another loan agreed in private last summer before details started to get published in advance.
Walmersley Brickworks, Bury: 24 houses, £1.37m
The latest project likely to get the go ahead at today’s combined authority’s meeting, this will see two dozen family houses built on a disused industrial site.
It is likely to cause furrowed brows among neighbours, however.
When developers tried to gain planning permission for the project on the site last summer - for the second time - it prompted uproar from residents, who feared the former landfill site would emit dangerous gases.
Nearby Chesham primary school also objected.
