City councillors are expected to reject plans for two new student tower blocks – one of which would have become Nottingham’s tallest building.
Code Students (Nottingham) Limited submitted plans to develop the vacant site next to the Victoria Centre, off Glasshouse Street and Cairns Street.
In 2014, Nottingham City Council approved plans to expand the shopping centre onto the site, but this never materialised. The site was most recently used by children’s charity Base 51 but has been vacant since 2021.
Under the new plans, the developer wants to build one 19-storey and one 27-storey tower that would sit above a plinth.
The southern tower would be 22 storeys when including the plinth, while the northern tower would be up to 30 storeys, including the plinth, making it the tallest building in Nottingham.
The development would feature 1,252 studio bedrooms, and three commercial units would be based at the bottom.
However, city planners recommended that the plans be rejected at a planning committee meeting on Wednesday (September 17).
development would fail to preserve or conserve the setting and character of a
number of designated heritage assets,” planning documents say.
The access arrangements for the proposed development would further have a “detrimental impact on the efficient and safe operation of the highway network”, documents add.
A consultation was held at the beginning of last year, and a number of objections were received.
Nottingham Civic Society said the development “would intensify the bleak, intimidating, hostile pedestrian environment around the site”.
Pradera Lateral Ltd, the asset managers of the Victoria Centre since October 2024, raised concerns over the scale of the development and the impact on traffic and pedestrians around the centre.
The University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University also issued a joint objection, saying that – while the development is in a good location for students – the universities have concerns with increasing vacancy rates in student accommodation.
“Nottingham Trent University’s vacancy study reports a disproportionately high number of studio beds vacant as opposed to the cluster style or apartment rooms,” the joint statement says.
“A University of Nottingham student study (October 2023) found studio bedroom design is ranked low by students for both value for money and quality.”
Between 2021 and 2022 Code Students revealed it was working on a similar development for the site called ‘Victoria Works’.
The development would have towered above the Victoria Centre flats and stand at 40 storeys. It would have housed more than 1,500 students.
There had been a shortfall in student beds at the time, with around 7,000 rooms needed between 2021 and 2024.
However, in July of this year, the council said there had been a “cooling in demand” for student accommodation.
