What happened

HG Construction has won £225m of work building four residential towers at Far East Consortium's Red Bank scheme in Manchester, part of the wider Victoria North regeneration close to Victoria station, Building and Construction News reported. The contract covers 895 homes: a 34 storey, 316 unit build to rent tower, HG's first in this tenure, plus three further buildings of 30, 19 and eight storeys totalling 579 units. Work on the smaller buildings is due to start shortly, while the 34 storey tower awaits Gateway 2 sign off from the Building Safety Regulator ahead of a start expected in early 2027. The design team includes architect Hawkins Brown, quantity surveyor Arcadis, M&E engineer Futureserv and sustainability consultant WSP. It is HG's third major contract win in Manchester.

Why it matters

Red Bank is one of the largest live residential pipelines in the North West, and a £225m award to a single contractor for four towers at once is a sizeable vote of confidence from Far East Consortium at a time when main contract awards nationally are up year on year even as the number of schemes starting on site has fallen. It also confirms build to rent as one of the few residential tenures still moving at scale in a market where several housebuilders have issued profit warnings and some developers have paused schemes over viability. For a contractor, landing a repeat client relationship, this is HG's third Manchester scheme, matters as much as the contract value. It signals a developer willing to keep coming back rather than re-tendering each phase.

What it means for your career

This is a live mobilisation, not a planning application, so the hiring that follows it is immediate. Expect HG and its supply chain to be recruiting site management, quantity surveying and M&E coordination roles in Manchester over the coming months, first for the three towers starting now and then for the 34 storey block once Gateway 2 clears. Arcadis's QS team and Futureserv's M&E design team will also be resourcing against the scheme, so this is worth a look whether you sit on the contractor or consultant side.

For QSs and project managers in the North West, build to rent experience is becoming a differentiator on your CV rather than a niche. The tenure runs to different cost and programme disciplines than for sale residential, with longer term asset management considerations feeding back into design and specification decisions, and contractors chasing BTR work will increasingly want people who already understand that. If you have worked a BTR scheme to practical completion, this is a good moment to make that visible on your CV and LinkedIn. Manchester's pipeline, and Red Bank specifically, is going to need more of that experience, not less, as the 34 storey tower moves toward a 2027 start.