What happened

Graham has secured Gateway 2 approval from the Building Safety Regulator to begin main construction on the £286m redevelopment of Cambridge Halls in Manchester, clearing the way for structural groundworks to start now that demolition of the previous 1990s-era accommodation is complete. The scheme, delivered for Unite Students in a joint venture with Manchester Metropolitan University, will replace the old 770-bed halls with a purpose-built student accommodation development rising to 30 storeys.

The job is being built in two phases. The first, a 1,101-bed block, is due to open for the start of the 2029/30 academic year, with a second 1,201-bed phase following a year later. Manchester Metropolitan holds a 30% stake in the joint venture and contributed the site. Alongside student bedrooms, the scheme includes ground-floor commercial space and a new community health centre facing Cambridge Street.

Gateway 2 is the Building Safety Regulator's approval point for higher-risk buildings before construction can begin above a certain height, brought in after Grenfell, and clearing it has become a genuine bottleneck for tall residential schemes across the country. Getting through it is itself the story here as much as the contract value.

Why it matters for the market

Tall residential schemes, particularly purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), have been one of the more resilient corners of an otherwise weak residential market this year, and Manchester in particular has become one of the most active PBSA markets outside London. A confirmed four-year build programme on a scheme of this scale is a meaningful, sustained piece of work in a city where several other tall residential jobs are competing for the same skilled labour pool.

It is also a live example of a scheme that has successfully navigated Gateway 2, at a time when regulator delays have stalled or slowed a string of high-rise projects nationally. Contractors and clients that can demonstrate a clean run through the new building safety regime are increasingly the ones winning the next round of tall residential work, because developers are wary of repeating the delays seen elsewhere.

What it means for your career

This is a concrete, four-year hiring signal in one place: site management, structural and groundworks supervisors, and commercial staff with high-rise residential experience should have Manchester on their radar now, as the main build ramps up from groundworks through to a 2029 handover on phase one.

Building safety experience is increasingly a differentiator rather than a nice-to-have. QSs and project managers who can point to direct experience taking a higher-risk building through Gateway 2, whether preparing the golden thread documentation, managing the Principal Designer relationship, or simply having sat through the process on a live job, are better positioned for the next wave of tall residential and PBSA work than those who have only worked on schemes below the height threshold.

For anyone currently in traditional housebuilding and feeling the effects of this year's residential slowdown, PBSA is worth a look. It has kept moving through the same period, driven by strong student demand and constrained supply in university cities, and Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham are the markets where that activity has been most visible.