Manchester sets out to refuse McGoff’s 153 flats

Frustrations over a lack of affordable homes, the impact on the grade two-listed Marble Arch public house, and absence of parking saw city councillors vote to move towards rejecting the £33.2m project off Rochdale Road.

The decision was made against officer recommendation at the city council planning committee meeting on Thursday afternoon.

McGoff’s proposed 17-storey apartment block would be made up of 50 one-bed flats, 96 two-bed ones, and seven three-bed apartments. Designed by Jon Matthews Architects, it also includes 1,700 sq ft of flexible amenity space on the ground floor.

Conceived as a car-free development, there are 108 cycle spaces proposed.

The plans submitted by WSP also included a 13-metre separation between the pub and the residential tower.

It’s height and proximity were the source of the objection from the Marble Arch pub owners, who said that the scheme would cause significant harm to their business.

None of the apartments would be designated as affordable. The scheme has an estimated development cost of £33.2m, according to the council’s independent assessment of the project’s viability. This assessment was handled by CBRE.

CBRE found that if the scheme included affordable homes as policy dictated, the scheme would be making a nearly 2% loss. Without affordable housing, that margin increased to 2.3%.

The scheme is lined up to receive a £27.4m subsidised loan from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Councillors were free in voicing their displeasure with the lack of affordable housing.

“It is frustrating that yet again we have a site here that is impacting a community asset, which all pubs in this city are but particularly our historic ones, and in return, it can’t even provide onsite affordable – not even social housing, just affordable housing in an area that’s desperate for it,” said Cllr Richard Kilpatrick.

“I’m really disappointed that it’s come to us because I think we need to be pushing much harder on this stuff. We need to be making sure we meet our own policies.”

Director of planning Julie Roscoe defended her team, pointing to the independent viability assessment.

“We absolutely test viability to destruction,” she said.

With the verdict of minded to refuse, the application will return to the committee for a final decision in due course.

In addition to Jon Matthews and WSP, the project team includes Planit, Savills, Booth King Partnership, Davies Partnership, OFR, Arcaero, Proximity, Virtual Planit, Safer Sphere, and S&C Engineering.

To learn more, search for planning reference number 145583/FO/2026 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.

Two other applications discussed at Thursday’s planning committee were deferred for a site visit. These would have seen 3,500 student beds built in the city. Both applications have been recommended for approval by the city council’s planning officers.