Is social housing in Tameside being allocated on the basis of economic apartheid?

 

The housing developer Bankfoot APM has submitted plans to build 102 homes on land owned by the Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

The development (see above), is to take place on a four-acre site off Harrop Street, Market Street and Chapel Street in Stalybridge and will comprise 44 town houses and 58 apartments. Although the developers say that all the homes will be "affordable" (at mid-market rent levels), the allocation of housing on this project seems to be discriminatory because the new homes are to be targeted on young families, key workers and young professionals. This was the criteria that was used to allocate housing when they opened the Summers Quay project in Stalybridge.

Obviously, pensioners, those in urgent need of housing and those on state benefits are lesser citizens and are not part of the criteria when it comes to allocating housing on this project. 

The big shots who run local authorities like Tameside Council, talk a lot of humbug about diversity, equality and inclusivity, but when it comes to the allocation of new housing in Tameside, we seem to have economic apartheid. The scheme is the first phase of the wider Stalybridge West masterplan being promoted by Tameside Council.