Miles Platting neighbourhood, Manchester

This refurbishment programme, funded by a Private Finance Initiative, will transform the Miles Platting neighbourhood in Manchester.

Location: Miles Platting neighbourhood, Manchester

Partners: The residents, Manchester City Council, Renaissance Consortium, Lovell Partnerships Ltd, Adactus Housing Association, Investors in the Community and New East Manchester Ltd

Project value: £160 million of public money, plus a similar amount of private sector funding

Project status: Ongoing

Transforming communities

Contracts were signed in March 2007 between Manchester City Council and the Renaissance Consortium, giving the go-ahead for work to start on the redevelopment of the Miles Platting neighbourhood in June 2007.

Through a Private Finance Initiative (PFI), £160 million of public money will be invested, along with a similar amount of private sector funding. This marks a major step towards the transformation of a 107 hectare (264 acre) area of Manchester, two miles east of the city centre.

The contract is for a five-year comprehensive refurbishment programme for 1,500 council dwellings including houses, flats and seven multi-storey blocks. The works will include kitchen and bathroom replacements, double glazing, electrical rewiring, new central heating and new garden walls or fences. 

Transforming homes

A 15-week programme has given the Koroma family home a complete makeover: one of the first of 1,500 to be completed on the estate. Carol  said; “Its so much better now I have much more cupboard and worktop space. The Lovell staff were tidy and clean, and nothing was to much trouble."

Working with local schools 

We believe it is part of our responsibility on this project to form strong relationships with schools and students themselves.

Our mentoring team will work alongside the students from the local school, Cedar Mount High School, on a range of projects to help them understand the construction process from design and build to marketing and sales. The students will visit our sites and be able to talk to our staff for a ground-level view of our industry.

The wider benefits of the projects cover a broad range of cross-curriculum subjects like the environment and basic business issues such as finance and profitability. We are also able to help with transferable skills such as report writing, public speaking and presentations, interview techniques and problem solving.