Lowry House, Bruntwood Works’ central Manchester workspace, is to become Bloc as work begins to revitalise the building into a productivity-boosting urban oasis as part of the work and leisure space provider’s £50m Pioneer transformation programme.

Located on Marble Street in the heart of the city centre, Bloc will launch with a renewed focus on the work environment to help boost productivity. Technology to monitor and optimise air quality, a state-of-the-art wellness suite – that will host yoga and fitness classes – and a cascading garden in the foyer, with living walls throughout, will all be introduced as Bruntwood Works aims to bring balance to business.

As part of Bloc’s effort to promote a work life balance, sleep pods will also be provided to help workers with vital rest and rejuvenation. Lack of sleep has been linked to poor performance and loss of productivity by Public Health England, with studies estimating an annual cost of £30bn to the UK due to lost sleep alone.

A local independent coffee shop will also make Bloc its home, while the refurbishment will bring a new cinema room, bespoke spaces for community pop-up events, and shared event and co-working spaces to help foster collaboration.

Renovation works are already underway to develop a ground floor annex that will include the addition of 180 new flexible desks, 12 new spaces in the coworking studio and 12 modern meeting rooms that have fully integrated hi-tech audio-visual equipment. This follows the refurbishment of the serviced suites on the upper floors, which have all been redesigned to mirror the building’s new concept.

Bloc is Bruntwood Works’ third Pioneer building – forward-thinking workspaces that offer innovative designs, individuality and flexibility – and its redevelopment follows the recent transformation of Blackfriars House and 111 Piccadilly in Manchester.

The Pioneer programme is creating a vibrant, community-focussed workplace centred on six key pillars: biophilia, art, sustainability, wellness, amenity and technology.

Ciara Keeling, CEO of Bruntwood Works, said: “Bloc will bring balance to business for our customers and community. But many businesses still face the challenge of creating the optimum work life balance. Flexible working has helped but it’s not a panacea, as lockdown has shown.

“The guiding thought behind Bloc is that we all work more productively when we’re in more natural and comfortable environments. But more than that, we’re happier too.

“Now more than ever, the flexibility of the space and level of service we provide is crucial in supporting our changed ways of working, particularly as our customers bring their teams back together and return to the office.

“Our Pioneer buildings are designed to be places that actively improve our wellbeing, and in turn, our work through greater and productivity, creativity and innovation. Bloc takes this and runs with it, and with its revolutionary biophilic revamp, it will be an urban oasis amidst an urban jungle.”

The name Bloc, defined as “a collection of people forming with a common interest or purpose”, marks the move to redefine the 16-storey building from a traditional office block to an environment that promotes balance and productivity, and one that places nature and its community of like-minded businesses at its heart.

Bloc will offer a range of workspace options that cater for businesses of all sizes, from coworking to serviced offices and traditional leased spaces to Made & Managed options which provide larger, private spaces that include rent, business rates and service charges. All workspace includes membership to the Collective, Bruntwood Work’s digital community platform and access to a broad range of amenities.

Completion is due Spring 2021.

Far East Consortium (FEC) is seeking to identify a registered provider housing partner(s) to help deliver its affordable home ambitions across Red Bank, one of the first phases of Manchester’s Northern Gateway, which could see over 800 new affordable homes delivered in the next 10 years.

The Northern Gateway, a joint venture partnership between FEC and Manchester City Council (MCC), will deliver up to 15,000 new homes across north Manchester over the next 15-20 years, 20% of which are outlined as affordable. The project is divided into a series of neighbourhoods, with Red Bank being one of the first to be progressed for development and investment by the partnership.

Red Bank will be a high-density, residential led neighbourhood adjacent to Victoria train station, which will see the delivery of approximately 5,500 homes over the next 10 years alongside £51.6m of Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) investment secured by MCC.

Circa 4,000 of the new homes will be delivered by FEC on land within their ownership, with an aspiration to deliver over 800 affordable homes. Avison Young, on behalf of FEC, has launched a marketing exercise to identify a registered provider housing partner (s) to help support delivery of the affordable homes.

As part of the process there is an urgent need for FEC to secure a partner for its initial development at Victoria Riverside, a key site located at the gateway to the Red Bank neighbourhood.

The Victoria Riverside development proposes 634 homes comprising 589 apartments split over three residential towers, 10 townhouses and 35 maisonettes and apartments at lower levels. It is anticipated that 32 homes within the Victoria Riverside development will be affordable in the form of shared ownership.

Running concurrently with expressions of interest for the Victoria Riverside development, Avison Young is leading a soft market testing exercise on behalf of FEC to inform strategy for delivery of affordable homes across the Red Bank neighbourhood.

Hilary Brett, project director at FEC, said: “The creation of vibrant, diverse and inclusive neighbourhoods with a mixture of home types and tenures is essential in building sustainable communities and is hugely important to our vision for Red Bank. We need to develop our affordable homes delivery strategy on a larger, neighbourhood level, rather than building by building. Given the scale of the opportunity, we are looking for a partner, or panel of partners, to help shape our proposals and assist in the delivery of affordable homes in Red Bank. We are extremely excited to be launching our search to find a partner to join us, and MCC, in regenerating this part of the city.”

Nicola Rigby, director at Avison Young, said: “We are delighted to be in a position to dispose of the first phase of affordable homes to an experienced registered provider partner to help deliver this important city centre scheme. The wider potential to establish a partnership across the whole of Red Bank comprises one of the biggest urban affordable housing opportunities outside of London, and we look forward to helping shape FEC’s approach to delivery in this context.”

Cllr Suzanne Richards, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “First and foremost the Northern Gateway is for Manchester people. The project represents one of the biggest housing development programmes in the UK and it’s important that the homes are accessible to those who need them, across a range of house types and tenures. Affordability therefore must be a key tenet of the housing investment and bringing in a professional registered provider to support the delivery of affordable homes in Red Bank underpins that ambition.”

The deadline for expressions of interest and soft market testing responses is Friday 2nd October 2020.

Stewart Milne Homes has secured an additional £13million from Homes England to accelerate the delivery of new homes across a number of its developments in North West England.

This funding announcement, which follows on from a 2018 award of £11.5million, brings the total number of new homes to be delivered by this ongoing partnership to almost 1,000, boosting the economy, adding to community infrastructure and supporting the creation of new jobs.

The funding will support the independent, award-wining housebuilder in delivering the new homes across eight developments in Alsager, Broughton, Chester, Congleton, Hooton, Prescot, Warton and Willaston.

These developments, which will create desirable communities with a balanced mix of family homes, around 30% of which will be affordable homes, will help meet the country’s housing shortfall.

The developments are at various stages, with Callenders Green in Prescot due to complete this month and Broughton Park due to commence in the next few weeks.

Working in partnership with Homes England, Stewart Milne Homes North West England Limited secured the loan from the £3billion Home Building Fund which aims to increase the number of new homes being built across the country with a target of delivering 300,000 new homes per annum.

Paul Challinor, managing director of Stewart Milne Homes North West England, believes the fund, which was already helping to address the country’s long-term housing challenge pre-COVID, is more important than ever as the country embarks on the road to recovery following lockdown.

He said: “The construction industry can play a major role in getting the economy back on its feet after lockdown. It’s crucial in terms of supporting jobs and the supply chain as well as closing the gap between supply and demand for homes.

“As we emerge from lockdown, private, independent developers, like ourselves, will find it even more challenging to make the up-front investment required to close that gap.

“The Homes England funding enables us to accelerate the delivery of outstanding new communities for local residents and help the UK Government meet its housing targets.

“Securing the funds is testament to the strong relationship we’ve built with Homes England over a number of years, demonstrates the confidence they place in us to deliver and underlines our commitment to investing in the North West.”

Terry Errington, head of structured real estate finance, Homes England, said: “Our relationship with Stewart Milne Group continues to strengthen and we are pleased to advance additional loan funding to deliver much needed open market and affordable homes across the region. We are supportive of building capacity and productivity in the construction sector, and Stewart Milne Group’s off site manufacturing model is a key element of this focus.”.

Stewart Milne Homes North West, a division of Stewart Milne Group, was established in 2006. Since then it has been on a steep upward growth trajectory. This exceptional growth, along with its high levels of customer service, has been recognised by several awards, most recently three winners in the NHBC Pride in the Job awards for construction quality on site.

Mr Challinor added: “Having experienced rapid growth in the North West in recent years, we have become a recognised brand in the region with a reputation for delivering quality, family homes in desirable new communities with a focus on craftsmanship and very high design specifications.

“We will continue to invest in the region through our strategy of acquisition of sites in prime residential locations, to create communities where demand is strongest for our new mix of family homes.”