A transformative £3.1 million project in Eccles, Salford, has created 24 new, truly affordable homes on the site of a disused car dealership.

Progressive landlord ForHousing has completed work on five two-bedroom and 19 one-bedroom homes that are now ready for local people to move into.

The homes, on the former Woodlands Garage site on Barton Lane, are available at low-cost social rent.

They provide much-needed housing at a time when the latest figures from Salford’s Housing Strategy show that over 6,000 people are on the housing waiting list, with 63 people bidding for each home that becomes available.

Homes England, the Government department responsible for driving up housing development, provided a grant of £1.7 million to help redevelop the site.

“We’re pleased that people can now look ahead to enjoying the rest of this year in their new homes.

“Over the past nine years, we have built 1,528 affordable homes across the North West, including 1,044 homes within Salford. We now have ambitions to build more than that number again by 2026.”

Councillor Tracy Kelly, Deputy City Mayor and Lead Member for Housing, Property and Regeneration at Salford City Council said: “Turning a disused site into 24 affordable homes for local people is great news for the city. We are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and people are desperate for truly affordable homes.

“I’d like to thank our partner organisations who have worked hard behind the scenes to bring this scheme to life and I look forward to meeting the residents when they are settled.

“Now we will continue to press on with building more quality affordable homes for local people to live in.”

The contractor for the development was Mangrove Construction Ltd, while AA Projects were the Employers Agent and locally based firm Grays Architecture led on design