Council on the hunt for consultant team to help with Old Trafford regeneration plans

Trafford Council is advertising for what it describes as “a top-class consultant team” to help it develop the masterplan of the Trafford Wharfside area which include a potential new stadium for Manchester United.

Teams have until 24 February to send in tenders for the work with the winning team working with the council as well as the football club and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

It said it wants “to deliver a transformational and sustainable international destination for the benefit of residents, businesses and visitors”.

At its heart is likely to be a new, 100,000-seat stadium for United, with industry rumours suggesting Foster & Partners is being lined up to design it, as well as 15,000 new homes.

A rebuild of Old Trafford has not yet been confirmed with an alternative focussing on a revamp of the existing ground with its capacity increased to 87,000 from its current 75,000. The last major work was carried out by Laing O’Rourke nearly 20 years ago, which involved adding 7,900 seats to the capacity by filling in the ground’s north-west and north-east corners.

The Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, chaired by Lord Coe, who headed the successful London 2012 Olympics bid, completed its feasibility work earlier this month.

In a statement, Manchester United said: “Both options [the new stadium or revamp of the existing one] remain under consideration, with the club set to decide on the preferred approach ahead of the summer.”

One source told Building Design’s sister title Building three years ago, when plans were first mooted about rebuilding the stadium: “I worked on Old Trafford, it is a cheap nasty series of buildings. It looked cheap then and looks embarrassing now. The architecture is horrific. There is nothing that can be done to refurbish this stadium in my view, it is a complete rebuild job. Not on this site, it is too close to the railway. Build it close by.”

Announcing the hunt for a consultant team had begun, Trafford Council’s executive member for economy and regeneration, Liz Patel, said: “We are now on the lookout for a world-class consultant team to shape the vision for the area.

“This is a hugely exciting project and working with our partners and private developers, we will be looking to create thousands of new homes, new neighbourhoods and help create a world-class setting for the Manchester United stadium.”

The tender has been advertised on The Chest, which is the North West Local Authority Procurement Portal.

The Old Trafford regeneration was given government backing earlier today by chancellor Rachel Reeves although business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said it would not be funding any of the “sporting elements” of the work.

“But of course the wider area, transport, housing, we want to work with local areas to deliver that,” he added.