960 New City Homes: What Manchester and Birmingham Towers Mean for Jobs

Two big tower stories landed within 24 hours of each other this week, and together they say a lot about where UK property jobs are heading next.

In Manchester, Gary Neville's Relentless Developments launched a public consultation on two towers of 43 and 33 storeys at St Mary's Parsonage, with 434 homes, a 172-room hotel and around 135,000 sq ft of offices (Place North West, 12 November 2026). A day later in Birmingham, Kier's development arm won planning approval for two build-to-rent towers of 30 and 17 storeys with 526 apartments, on the final plots of the Arena Central regeneration scheme near Gas Street Basin (Place Midlands, 13 November 2026).

That's 960 city-centre homes across two of the UK's biggest regional cities, plus a hotel, offices, restaurants and public space. And it's happening in a week when the wider housing numbers were far from cheerful.

The backdrop: a soft market with bright spots

The Office for National Statistics said on 12 November that construction output grew 0.8% in September 2026, its first rise after four straight monthly falls, helped by a 3.3% jump in infrastructure work. But output still fell 0.7% across the third quarter, and private new housing was the biggest drag, down 4.7% (ONS). New orders rose 1.2%, driven mainly by public work and private commercial projects.

On the sales side, the October RICS Residential Market Survey put agreed sales at a net balance of -24, down from -18 in September, as higher mortgage rates bit after the Bank of England's rise to 4% (RICS).

So why am I upbeat about two tower schemes? Because they show where the money and the confidence are still going: city-centre living, rental homes run by professional landlords, and mixed-use places that blend homes, work and leisure. Those schemes need a different and often wider mix of people than a typical suburban estate.

What's actually in these two schemes

St Mary's Parsonage, Manchester. The 43-storey tower would go on the cleared Alberton House site and hold most of the 434 homes plus the offices. Next door, Cardinal House would be demolished for a 33-storey tower with the hotel and more flats. A new walkway would link Parsonage to the River Irwell, with restaurants at ground level. The consultation runs until 1 December, and Relentless hopes to submit a planning application before the end of the year (Construction Enquirer, 13 November 2026).

Arena Central, Birmingham. Kier's TP Bennett-designed towers sit on the corner of Holliday Street and Bridge Street. They'll offer one, two and three-bed rental apartments, ground-floor commercial space, and more than 11,000 sq ft of resident facilities such as lounges, gyms and workspaces. The scheme was approved at committee on 12 November despite objections from HMRC, which occupies offices next door, and concerns from Historic England and the Canal & River Trust about the canalside setting (Construction Enquirer, 13 November 2026).

The jobs these towers create, phase by phase

The headline number is homes, but the real story for careers is how many different people it takes to get a tower from a consultation board to a fully let building.

Right now: planning and consultation. Relentless's project team already includes planning consultants, architects, engineers, heritage, acoustic and environmental specialists (Place North West). Birmingham's approval came after a planning fight that town planners on both sides will have worked hard on. If you're interested in that side, read our town planner guide.

Next: development and cost. Development managers steer the scheme, quantity surveyors price it and manage the cost, and commercial teams negotiate the build contract. With construction prices still up 3.2% a year according to the ONS, good cost people are worth their weight in gold.

Then: the build. High-rise residential is specialist work. Since the Building Safety Act, buildings of 18 metres or seven storeys and above with two or more homes need building control approval from the Building Safety Regulator before work starts, and a completion certificate before anyone moves in (GOV.UK). That has created steady demand for site managers, building safety specialists, fire engineers and document controllers who can keep the "golden thread" of information in order. If that appeals, our site manager guide is a good place to start.

Finally: running it. This is the bit people forget. A 526-home build-to-rent scheme isn't sold off and forgotten; it's run as a business for years. That means a building manager, leasing consultants, resident experience staff, concierge, maintenance technicians and compliance specialists, often employed by the operator rather than the builder. Add a 172-room hotel and ground-floor restaurants in Manchester and you've got hospitality and facilities roles too. Our facilities manager and block manager guides cover two of the most transferable of these careers.

My take

A planning consultation isn't a crane on site, and plenty of tower schemes stall between consent and construction. Neither project will create a single job overnight.

But careers are built on direction, not headlines. Regional city centres such as Manchester and Birmingham keep attracting serious developers, and build-to-rent operators need people who are good with residents, good with data and good with compliance. Those skills hold value even when the sales market is slow.

Technology is changing these roles for the better. Build-to-rent teams already use resident apps, digital key systems and AI assistants to handle routine queries, book viewings and flag maintenance issues early. That doesn't replace the leasing consultant or building manager. It frees them up for the human part of the job: welcoming people, solving problems and making a tower feel like home.

If you're in housebuilding and worried about the cuts, look at the skills you already have. Site management, customer care, snagging and handovers all transfer neatly into high-rise and rental living.

What to do this week

• If you work in sales or new homes, look at leasing and resident experience roles in build-to-rent. The skills overlap more than you think.
• If you're a site manager or assistant, learn the Building Safety Act gateway process. It's a real edge for high-rise jobs.
• If you're early in your career, look at Manchester and Birmingham. Both cities have years of regeneration ahead.

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