Plans for UK’s tallest tower outside London were approved last November
Plans to build the UK’s tallest tower outside of London will have to go back before a planning committee after the scheme’s approval was found to involve a conflict of interest.
Matt Brook Architecture’s £1.3bn Regent Retail Park development, designed for Henley Investment Management, was granted planning consent in November last year but will now need to be reconsidered by Salford council.
The 3,300-home scheme would span ten buildings including one tower rising to 78-storeys in height, the tallest in Manchester and third tallest in the country after the Shard and 22 Bishopsgate in London.
It has faced significant opposition from locals with more than 460 posting objections to its planning application and more than 4,300 signing two petitions opposing the scheme prior to its planning approval.
A campaign group called Save Regent Retail Park lodged a formal complaint against the consent earlier this year over what it claimed was a conflict of interest involving the chair of Salford planning committee, Phil Cusack.
Cusack was listed as a director of Salford council’s affordable housing company Derive at the time of the committee hearing which approved the scheme, which the campaign group argued created a conflict of interest due to the company’s potential future involvement in the provision of 660 social rent homes for the scheme’s affordable housing element.
Salford council’s legal department has now upheld the complaint, ruling there had been a “procedural conflict of interest”. The scheme’s application remains on the council’s planning portal and is expected to return to the planning committee at a later date.
The setback is the second delay for Henley Investment Management after a decision on the scheme was deferred for three months last year following concerns over its share of affordable housing and the potential for increased traffic around the site.
The development would replace a retail park in Ordsall and would also contain 10,000sq m of retail and community space to replace the existing shopping centre, which Henley purchased from M&G for £16m in 2020.
The project team includes landscape architect LDA Design, planning consultant Savills, project manager Buro Four, civil and structural engineer AKT II, cost consultant Gardiner & Theobald, townscape consultant Turley and environmental impact consultant Trium.
A spokesperson for Henley said: “We have not withdrawn our planning application and are pressing ahead with our development to build over 3,000 new homes, around a quarter of which will be social rented accommodation, and supporting public amenities for the local community. We are committed to working with the council to advance our plans through the appropriate procedures as we are advised.
“We are aware of the council’s internal procedural issue which is frustrating, but we have a close ongoing dialogue and they are keeping us updated.”
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