Manchester City Council has unveiled plans to build 2,000 new affordable homes in the city each year.

The new housing affordability framework was approved earlier this month. So far, 2,721 new homes have been built through the Affordable Homes Programme over the past five years.

Wates Residential has now called on the industry to increase investment in the sector to "ramp up" skills training.

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The developer is currently responsible for the construction of 240 new homes through Matrix Homes' £24m Housing Investment Fund in Manchester.

Jo Jamieson, Managing Director of Wates Residential, said: "The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) recently predicted that 6,650 new industry jobs will be created per year in the North West between 2016 and 2020, positions that will need to be filled if we're to maintain the projected 2.6% annual growth in construction output.

"There are promising signs of increased activity in the region, evidenced by Manchester City Council's investment in further affordable homes, but with this comes an increasing pressure for housing developers to increase skills training to grow the available labour pool."

(LM/JP)