Manchester's Charedi community could soon be given some relief from its housing crisis.
The Agudas Israel Housing Association (AIHA) has put in a bid to buy 17 luxury houses, all of five, six or seven bedrooms, in the Broughton Green development in Higher Broughton, Salford.
Larger houses are in high demand by the strictly Orthodox community, who usually have large families, sometimes with as many as 15 children. But they are in short supply in Manchester as well as in London, along with other parts of the UK.
This has left Charedi areas facing huge problems of overcrowding, with cases of families of 11 crammed into two-bedroom flats.
The properties were built as luxury homes but some failed to sell. The houses were then offered to AIHA, which has now put in a £5 million bid to buy them. AIHA already has around 60 properties in Greater Manchester, and will find out in the next two months if its bid has been successful.