A big story for British real-estate... A Chinese company is going to help build Britain's biggest housing project.

Beijing Construction Engineering Group has signed a deal to work on the Middlewood Locks building project in Salford, Greater Manchester.

The project includes apartments, hotels, offices, retail stores and leisure facilities.

The Chinese state-run company will invest 85 million pounds in the first phase of the project, which includes 571 apartments, to be built within the next two years.

The company's UK partner has been cooperating with Chinese construction companies for over ten years.

" We have sold properties here in China before.... we were looking for contracted partner not really interested in going out to the open market..size and scale and skilled personnel to undertake this project forward." said Kevin Mccabe,chairman of Scarborough Group International.