Renaker’s wait for skyscraper green light goes on as legal threat looms
Weis Group is preparing to launch a judicial review in a bid to block the construction of Renaker’s next five towers at Great Jackson Street in Manchester, including the developer’s tallest yet at 71 storeys, which have been stuck in planning limbo for 20 months.
Manchester City Council’s planning committee gave the go-ahead in principle for Renaker’s plans for the 2,400-home, SimpsonHaugh-designed scheme in August 2024.
A draft S106 agreement was published in June 2025 but final sign-off has been delayed following a series of objections submitted by Manchester-based investor Weis Group focussing on the project’s lack of affordable housing provision. Without a formal decision notice, Renaker cannot start building the project.
In June, it will be three years since the planning applications for the five buildings were submitted. This is a protracted process for Renaker, Manchester’s most prolific developer, which has historically secured speedy approvals for its projects.
In the case of Contour, two 51-storey towers currently under construction, the gap between committee approval and the completion of the S106 was less than four months. For Trinity Islands, comprising four towers and almost 2,000 homes, the wait was less than three months. The wait for approval for Renaker’s five-tower development at Great Jackson Street currently stands at 20 months.
Renaker declined to comment.
The delay in approval for Renaker’s largest project yet is at least partly down to an objection from the Weis Group. The investor objects to the proposals for The Green – two 47-storey towers and two 51-storey towers – and the 71-storey Lighthouse, saying that the application is “materially deficient”.
Specifically, the investor cites concerns about the assessment of the scheme’s viability. At the planning committee meeting during which the application was determined, members were told that, due to viability constraints, Renaker could not afford to provide any on-site affordable homes and that that scheme would not be deliverable if a contribution, in full or in part, was provided.
The lighthouse-inspired building will feature a restaurant on the top floor. Credit: via consultation website
The draft S106 contains a clawback mechanism, which means the viability of each phase will be assessed at intervals to see if the outlook has improved sufficiently to allow contributions towards affordable housing to be made in the future.
In its objections, Weis Group questions how the profit level triggers – the amount at which the viability clawback would kick in – have been calculated.
A spokesperson for Weis Group said: “Our objection is simply that developments like this across the rest Manchester and indeed the rest of the country would include a reasonable amount of affordable housing.
“Sadly, Manchester City Council seem intent on doing all they can to let Renaker off any such requirements. That’s not fair to the residents of Manchester and once again shows the dubious realities of Manchesterism.”
You can read the full objection letter on Manchester City Council’s planning portal by searching for reference numbers 137227/FO/2023 and 137226/FO/2023.
Manchester City Council declined to comment.
Weis Group’s objection letter published in February concludes: “Unless these issues are fully addressed, the necessary evidence is provided and subject to consultation, and the application is brought back before members for re-consideration, any determination would be made on a flawed and incomplete basis. Any such decision would be at clear risk of legal challenge.”
More generally, Weis Group queries in its objection how previous Renaker developments have been considered unviable to the point they cannot support the delivery of affordable housing and simultaneously viable enough to secure finance from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund.
Two other Renaker schemes in Manchester loaned a combined £140m from the fund were both labelled as unviable when passing through planning. Weis Group lost a tribunal last year during which it claimed these loans to Renaker from the GMHILF amounted to subsidy and had “distorted the market”. The judge found in favour of the GMCA and an appeal will be held in June.
Weis Group defeated Manchester City Council in a separate court case recently after the authority refused the landowner permission to knock down warehouses on a site next to Renaker’s that has permission for a pair of 51-storey towers.
