Manchester is building more new homes than the whole of Greater London, the council has said, but the claim has been disputed by the mayor of London.
Housing figures in dispute
Figures published by Manchester council this week showed a total of 4,766 homes were built in the city in 2025/26. City leaders in Manchester said this is more than all of the Greater London area, which managed to build 4,261 homes in the same period. London’s housing data was taken from London Datastore, a website by the Greater London Authority.
But pointing to other data, the mayor of London’s office said the city has in fact built more homes than Manchester. A spokesperson for the mayor said: “Based on official government statistics on new homes, there were 32,949 new homes built in London in financial year 2025/26, compared to 3,653 in Manchester City Council.”
“Since becoming Mayor, Sadiq has made affordable housing a top priority and has delivered significant progress. This includes building more new council homes than at any time since the 1970s and, prior to the pandemic, completing more new homes in London than at any time since the 1930s.”
Manchester's housing boom
Manchester’s housing surge comes at a time of major political change in the country, with former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham crowned Prime Minister and plans for a Number 10 North in the city. In the pipeline for Manchester’s future, councillors want to expand the boundary of the city centre and kick on with a plan to build 36,000 homes by 2032.
“We are ramping up delivery by working closely with our housing partners, by accessing grant funding and using council-owned brownfield land to deliver the homes we need,” said Coun Gavin White, who leads on housing matters at Manchester council.
Affordable homes focus
Building homes at affordable rates is a key part of the city’s plan. According to the council, more affordable homes were built last year than at any point since the late 1990s. This led to 901 affordable tenure homes being completed, of which around half (439) were for social rent.
Coun White added: “We set out to be ambitious with how we are delivering new housing for our residents because we know how important a decent, secure and safe home is for the success of Manchester people. Building genuinely affordable homes remains incredibly challenging but we continue to buck the national trend and we are seeing more new affordable homes built now than at any point this century. To have built the homes we have year-on-year is testament to our vision to deliver for our residents.”
Calls for rent controls
Manchester’s housing boom has come alongside calls from city leaders for a landmark move to devolve powers over rent controls. This is aimed at tackling a ‘stark’ problem over affordability and access to housing, as the city’s average rents have hit the £1,300 mark. Deansgate Councillor Marcus Johns said at a council meeting last week: “We are asking government to devolve powers to our new Greater Manchester mayor to develop limits on rents.”
According to Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), a charity that leads research into poverty, rent controls which limit rises at the lower of inflation or earnings could save the average renter in the north west £310 a year, or £450 on average across the UK.
