More than 600 new houses pledged in Oldham in £110m mega deal

A CGI of the Oldham Southlink development. Image courtesy of Vistry / FCHO

An Oldham housing association has pledged to build at least 600 more affordable homes and refurbish thousands of existing properties after a £110 million mega deal with Santander UK.

First Choice Homes Oldham (FCHO) will construct a mixture of affordable housing and homes for social rent in Oldham and the surrounding area, according to executive director Andy Ewart.

The cash boost will also go towards making the housing providers 11,500 existing properties more energy efficient. 

Ewart said: “These are exciting times for FCHO.  

"The funding will support delivery of FCHO’s homes strategy 2025-2028 that includes delivering more properties for social rent to directly support government ambitions for social and affordable house building.

“We also need to ensure FCHO’s existing housing stock is fit for the future and meets the needs and aspirations of customers through improved energy efficiency to cut carbon emissions and help reduce energy bills.”

Some of the funding is already earmarked for a major project at Southlink, bringing 147 ‘affordable and energy efficient’ to brownfield land at the site of the former Mumps railway station.

A planning application for the new neighbourhood, delivered alongside developer Vistry Group, is currently under consideration by Oldham Council. 

If approved, the project involves three four-storey blocks containing 28 one- and 69 two-bed flats, as well as rows of terraced, semi-detached, or detached three or four-bedroom houses.

More than half of the homes would be available for social rent, 40 for shared ownership, and nine for rent-to-buy. 

Other parts of the funding will be used to improve insulation and energy sources at FCHO’s housing stock.

The housing provider aims to improve Energy Performance Certificate ratings (EPC) up to level C by 2030.

The news of the Santander funding comes shortly after FCHO joined JV North, a consortium of housing associations geared towards delivering new homes under the government’s £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

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