In the winter of 2023, three-year-old Louis was rushed to hospital. The cause wasn’t a rare disease or accident—it was mould. Toxic spores had spread through his bedroom walls, poisoning the air he breathed. For families on Manchester’s Langley estate, this tragedy was heartbreakingly familiar.
A new report from Greater Manchester Tenants Union, Who Owns Langley?, uncovers how decades of privatisation, housing transfers, and neglect have turned a once-thriving estate into a battleground for basic rights.
From Hope to Hardship
Langley was born in the 1950s, built to give families displaced from Manchester’s slum clearances a better life—homes with gardens, space, and community. In those early years, everyone paid rent to the same landlord, and repairs were swift.
But the landscape began to shift. Right to Buy sold off many homes, often to investors rather than residents. Then, in 2002, Manchester City Council transferred the rest to Riverside Housing, promising reinvestment and renewal.
What followed instead were patchy repairs, rising service charges, and frustration. Residents describe Riverside as “wolves in sheep’s clothing”—promises loudly proclaimed, but rarely delivered.
A Patchwork of Power
Today, Langley’s ownership map is a web of complexity: Riverside still owns parts, but vast areas are now controlled by private landlords, some registered in London, others as far away as the Virgin Islands.
Rents in the private sector are now almost double those of social housing. Tenants’ payments fund corporate borrowing and market-rate developments elsewhere—while local families live with mould, leaks, and disrepair.
Reclaiming What’s Ours
Who Owns Langley? doesn’t just document decline—it calls for action. It’s a rallying cry for transparency, accountability, and genuine community control over housing.
Because homes aren’t assets to be traded. They’re the foundations of our lives.
Read the full report: Who Owns Langley? (PDF)
