Fallowfield Campus Redevelopment Project

Redevelopment of the site following demolition of the existing buildings represents the best option to achieve a student experience aligned to students’ expectations in today’s competitive accommodation market.

The design of the new buildings will aim to ensure both their initial construction and long-term operation are aligned with our approach to environmental sustainability.

Our objectives for the project are to:

• Meet student accommodation need, demand and increasing supply.

• Provide modern and high-quality student accommodation.

• Offer a mix of bedrooms to cater for different needs and price points relative to the wider market in the city.

• Provide a supportive residential experience.

Alongside this, the Fallowfield Campus has the potential to contribute wider benefits to the city beyond the need for student beds.

The delivery of modern student accommodation promotes city-wide regeneration objectives in supporting employment growth, graduate and talent retention and developing Manchester as a city of choice on the international market, and in supporting the wider housing market by catering for specific needs.

We are progressing an outline planning application for the south west corner of the Fallowfield Campus (the site boundary is depicted by the red line on the plan, covering Owen’s Park, Oak House and Woolton Hall). The outline planning application would seek to replace existing bedrooms on site with up to 3,300 new bed spaces.

This would result in up to 5,400 bedrooms across the Fallowfield Campus, helping to uplift the current number of bedrooms by up to 950 to meet growing demand. By widening the supply, it would provide students with greater choice, helping to meet demand for high-quality, modern bedrooms across the popular campus.

The site is in a well-connected, sustainable and accessible location and presents an opportunity to create an improved campus environment.

The guiding design principles that are being developed to shape and guide placemaking on site may include:

• Retaining the primary student arrival point on Wilmslow Road.
• Retaining the existing perimeter tree planting and overall green character.
• Increasing the number of amenity spaces including green spaces and hubs to cater for students across the Fallowfield campus.
• Supporting a network of pedestrian routes to enable a walkable campus environment.
• Providing safe and accessible cycle storage.

To facilitate redevelopment on the site, we have applied for permission to undertake a number of enabling works. These include:

• Refurbishment of Oak House to upgrade communal areas, until full redevelopment takes place at a later stage (in place ahead of the start of the 2023/24 academic year).
• Relocation of the Student Reception (currently at Owens Park) to an alternative location on site (in place ahead of the start of the 2023/24 academic year).
• Ensuring that the wider Owens Park site is ready for future development, including putting up hoardings.

These works would be undertaken from summer 2023 and no demolition work would be commencing prior to current residents on the wider Fallowfield Campus moving out.

Your views are important to us and we would like to hear your feedback before we finalise our proposals and submit an outline planning application to Manchester City Council.

In June 2023 there was a public consultation period on the proposals, but it has now officially closed.

The project team is considering all feedback as part of the planning application. If you would like to get in touch with us regarding this project, you can email the team at contact@fallowfieldcampus-redevelopment.co.uk or call Freephone 0808 1688 296, leave a message and a member of the team will call you back.

We held a drop-in event on Wednesday, 14 June 2023 between 3pm and 7pm at Uttley House on the Fallowfield Campus and a live public webinar on Thursday, 15 June 2023 between 6pm and 7pm. A recording of the webinar session can be viewed below for those who were unable to attend.

Public webinar recording:

The information you provide will be used only for the purposes of understanding public opinion on the project. Your feedback will be shared directly with Turley Strategic Communications, who will summarise feedback in a Statement of Community Engagement which will be submitted alongside the planning application to Manchester City Council. Personal details will not be shared with any other third party and we will not contact you in relation to any other project or for marketing purposes. The information you provide will be stored securely until determination of the planning application. Following determination, this information will be deleted. If you have indicated that you would like to be kept informed on progress with the proposals, your information will only be shared with third parties for the express purpose of keeping you informed, and with The University of Manchester and/or the relevant local authority where there is a legal obligation to do so. It will not be forwarded on to any other third parties. You can contact us at any time to request the deletion of your information. Please contact us at contact@fallowfieldcampus-redevelopment.co.uk.