First Choice Homes Oldham is demolishing 247 rental properties at two high-rise blocks in Coldhurst namely Crossbank House and Summervale House, Oldham’s largest social housing provider will then build 100 new family homes. Like most things in Oldham the logistics make no sense and will once again have the largest impact on single people who will face no chance of ever getting another social housing tenancy in Oldham where the Council and partners continue to aim their housing policy at accommodating ludicrous fertility rates in these areas that are 60% and more above the England average. Everybody else is sacrificed to this socialist ideology and we have already witnessed the traditional social rented “granny flats” increasingly being given to antisocial younger tenants and migrants who are using them as houses of multiple occupation and we have seen documentation showing FCHO and Oldham Council are ignoring the issues and telling tenants who report problems that they are mistaken. There are three times more people on the social housing waiting list in Oldham than in 7 of the 9 other Greater Manchester authority areas Bury, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport. Tameside, Trafford, Wigan and at least 33% more people than on the City of Manchester waiting list.
Coldhurst is the most deprived ward in Oldham where a third of the population are under 16, Coldhurst already has more social rented housing than any other Oldham area and around 60% of households already receive housing benefit. This ward houses the largest Bangladeshi community in the UK and as a direct result has the lowest rate of economically active working age women in Greater Manchester and has no female representatives on the council.