IN Brief:
- FEC has appointed HG Construction under contracts worth £225m for 895 homes across Red Bank plots NT02 and NT03.
- A 34-storey build-to-rent scheme at NT02 is due to start first, while NT03 awaits Building Safety Regulator approval.
- The appointment follows publicly supported enabling works and includes plans to use off-site manufactured bathroom and utility pods.
HG Construction has secured contracts worth £225m to build 895 homes at Red Bank in Manchester, taking two plots within Far East Consortium’s wider Victoria North regeneration programme towards construction. The appointment covers four residential buildings on Dantzic Street, north of Manchester Victoria station, and follows infrastructure work intended to make the plots ready for development.
Developer FEC has divided the work between plots NT02 and NT03, which have different construction programmes. NT02 comprises 316 properties in a 34-storey building that will become FEC’s first build-to-rent development. Work there is due to begin immediately, with completion expected by 2029. The neighbouring NT03 plot contains three buildings named Falcon, Kingfisher and Midrise, providing a further 579 homes.
FEC expects work on NT03 to begin in early 2027, conditional on Gateway 2 approval from the Building Safety Regulator. HG Construction’s appointment covers both plots, but only NT02 has been identified for immediate construction. A programme for NT03 will have to reflect the regulator’s decision, and FEC has not published completion dates for its three buildings.
The two contracts sit within a larger consent covering 1,551 homes on plots NT02, NT03 and NT04, granted in August 2023. NT04 is not part of the announced HG Construction appointment, and no equivalent construction programme has been released for that plot. The HG Construction appointment therefore accounts for 895 of the 1,551 consented homes, leaving the rest outside the announced contracts.
Before the new building contracts, Manchester City Council and BAM completed major enabling and infrastructure works during the summer. Homes England’s Housing Infrastructure Fund helped support that programme, which was designed to unlock the three plots. Such preparation can address access, site services and land conditions ahead of vertical construction, although the precise engineering scope of each individual plot has not been detailed in FEC’s latest project account.
The next stage will bring building deliveries and site operations into a neighbourhood where public realm and access improvements have already been carried out. Red Bank forms part of Victoria North, a wider redevelopment intended to connect new housing, green space and walking and cycling routes north of the city centre. Construction servicing and temporary access will need to coexist with those emerging connections, although the site logistics plan for HG Construction’s plots has not been published.
The appointed design team includes Hawkins\Brown as architect, with landscape design by Open and S+G. FEC’s proposals place particular emphasis on connecting new homes to nearby green space and improving movement through the district. Those public realm objectives must be coordinated with servicing and construction activity as the area moves from preparatory works towards occupied residential buildings.
HG Construction intends to use its in-house delivery operation, including factory assembled bathroom and utility pods. A manufactured pod arrives with its room layout and much of its services coordination resolved before it is lifted or moved into the building. The approach changes the sequence of procurement, installation and inspection compared with fitting out each room entirely on site, but FEC has not published project-specific productivity or carbon estimates.
Adam Quinn, chief executive of HG Construction, identified the company’s self-delivery capability as part of its approach to programme, quality and safety. Across hundreds of apartments, repeating bathroom and utility layouts can support factory assembly, provided designers fix the service interfaces and installation tolerances early enough. The construction team must also plan how completed pods will reach their final positions without obstructing structural works, facade installation or other trades.
NT03’s anticipated start is subject to the building control approval procedure for higher-risk buildings in England. Gateway 2 requires the Building Safety Regulator to be satisfied that the proposed building work complies with applicable building regulations before the controlled construction work begins. Planning consent granted in 2023 cannot stand in for that approval, so the early 2027 target remains conditional.
The Manchester appointment adds four high-rise residential buildings to HG Construction’s contracted workload, although the developer has not broken down the £225m value between NT02 and NT03. The delivery sequence is correspondingly uneven: the 34-storey NT02 tower is preparing to start, while the neighbouring three-building phase is still progressing through the building safety process. No dates have been announced for the completion of Falcon, Kingfisher or Midrise.
FEC’s stated timetable puts completion of NT02 in 2029. It has not named a main contractor for NT04 or released an updated schedule for all 1,551 consented homes. The next confirmed steps are mobilisation on NT02 and a Gateway 2 determination for NT03, on which the start of the remaining 579 homes depends.
