Feed The Rich Award
Goes to...
English Cities Fund
Ladies and gentlemen, for those who don't already know, the English Cities Fund, or ECf, is a grubby partnership between financial behemoth Legal and General, Muse Developments and the Government's Homes England, with cheerleading from Salford City Council.
The ECf has been busy building truly unaffordable properties all around Chapel Street and New Bailey. Last year the ECf stormed it in this Feed The Rich category, getting huge public subsidies - £1,176,819 from the Government's Housing Infrastructure Fund for infrastructure works around its Atelier Homes site, plus a £6,437,848 'cross-subsidy' from the Development Trust Account, or DTA, all approved by Salford Council, of course (see here).
The DTA is a secretive fund set up to, kind of, replace Section 106 monies that developers should be paying to mitigate the impacts of their developments; but the agreement with Salford Council allows ECf to raid the fund to subsidise 'unviable' developments. Any leftovers are supposed to be spent on infrastructure and affordable housing – except that not one affordable property has been built from the proceeds of townhouses that cost punters anything up to around £500,000.
This year, ECf has been at it again as, in February, Salford Council approved another humungous £4.752million subsidy from the DTA for it to build a 23 storey block of apartments off Stanley Street that, yet again, will feature 'no affordable housing'.
The report approving the subsidy from Salford City Council states that the "ECf are aware of the burden being placed on the DTA and are reviewing the wider residential/commercial mix within the ODA [Overarching Development Agreement] area..."...in their dreams!
The ECf is also the chosen development partner for Salford City Council's Crescent Masterplan...and it is also one of the companies that helped to pay for the trip to the South of France property orgy MIPIM for Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett (see here).
The ECf was run close for the Feed The Rich Award this year by Renaker, another company that helped pay for the Mayor's South of France sojourn, as its related company, Greengate Investments 1 Ltd, scooped a cool loan of £37.562million public money from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund for its Collier's Yard development in Greengate this month – which has absolutely no affordable housing as part of its 559 apartments.
Who could possibly be the Greater Manchester Lead for Housing who sought approval for the loan? Why, none other than Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, who has spent all year going on about the lack of affordable housing in the city!
Also in the running for this prestigious award was Fairbriar Developments (Salford) Ltd, Scarborough International Properties - or whatever the mix of investors from the UK, China and Singapore call themselves this year – for the Middlewood Locks development.
In August, Phase 3 of the gigantic 25 acre profit farm was approved by Salford Council, for 189 residential units plus commercial space, with no Section 106 payments again.
For Phases 1 and 2, the Salford Star estimated the conglomerate had avoided £8.3million in such fees, with the Council originally asking for only £1.95million with clawbacks. However not a penny was paid during these phases.
At the planning meeting for Phase 2, in 2016, Councillor Charlie McIntyre (now Ceremonial Mayor) asked planning officers why there were no contributions, with the reply that "The second phase is affected by the first phase landscaping so it's not so viable...but the next phase will secure Section 106 contributions".
..."And how are we going to protect ourselves getting to the third phase and being told that it's 'unviable' again?" the councillor asked.
"It would be unusual if the third phase came forward and our officers were saying again that there were no contributions to be made..." the officer replied...
...Err, then Phase 3 came along and the Section 106 viability review took place in secret "outside of the parameters of this application", with the planning report concluding that "This payment trigger is not met with phase 3 but is likely to be met in the coming phases..." – even though the developer has been boasting that 94% of its 'unviable' unaffordable properties sold in the first two phases.
Middlewood Locks was certainly a contender, not only for this Feed The Rich Award, but also it would have stormed the 'jam tomorrow' category, if there has been one...Oh, and the Middlewood Locks mob was also one of the posse who paid for the Salford City Mayor's trip to the South of France. Where do we buy him a ticket???
So, this year the contest was as close as ever but the judges decided that the ECf was victorious, edging it through sheer capitalist audacity. So ladies and gentlemen, cheer from the terraces, slap your arrears and charge your empty glasses for the winner of the 2020 Salford Star Mary Burns Feed The Rich Award...
English Cities Fund!!!
If someone from the ECf would like to make an acceptance speech please use the comments box below...
See also this year's other winners of the Salford Star Mary Burns Awards...
The Deer, Deer...Shot Ourselves in the Foot Award - RHS Bridgewater - click here
LS Lowry Award for Grotty Terraced Housing – Salford City Council – click here
Uncle Joe Stalin Award for Open and Democratic Government – Salford City Council - click here
The George Bush Read My Lips Award - Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett - click here
Knowing Your Community Award - Salford City Council - click here
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
