Exclusive:Huge £100m Sheffield housing scheme under threat amid row over 1,000 studio flats in giant towers

Developers have raised doubts over whether they will continue with construction work on the CODE flats development, at the corner of Wellington Street and Rockingham Street in the city centre, and say it could leave Sheffield forced to build on more greenfield sites to meet accommodation needs.

They had warned Sheffield Council that the scheme could be mothballed if the authority did not agree to them changing the mix of flats to allow them to fill it with over 1,100 studios, rather than a mix of different accommodation types as had originally been agreed.

The scheme is aimed at creating student accommodation, but the company behind it says that a reduction in demand in Sheffield has meant falling rents, so changes are needed.

But the changes they want to make have been turned down for planning permission.

CODE developers had previously raised doubts about the viability of the scheme going forward if the changes were not agreed, and now says that if they cannot make the changes, they will mothball the whole site, leaving an unfinished construction site.

In a report from council officers written before the changes were refused, Sheffield Council officers were highly critical of the planned flats.

They stated: “What is proposed would be the largest single collection of homogenous substandard units anywhere in the city, over 1,000 identical units stacked within a tall building on one of the key city centre development sites.

“Amending the floor plans to allow a 100 per cent studio scheme would not only be negative in the context of the overall diversity/ quality of housing options within Sheffield city centre but would also result in a monotonous monolithic development denuded of the vibrancy which a mix of accommodation types could bring in terms of attracting different types of resident and breaking up the otherwise repetitive internal layout and floorplan.”

The council report said the proposals would unravel improvements to the initially submitted development scheme negotiated in good faith by council officers , with the developer already having removed an initially promised affordable housing element to the scheme.

However, an email from Chris May, part of the application team for CODE, had earlier warned Sheffield Council: “Given that CODE’s 1,015 units are currently contributing to the Council’s five year housing land supply, if the scheme is refused and thereby has to be mothballed, the clear implication will be that the 1,015 dwellings will need to be identified elsewhere.”

CODE Students managing director, Jamie Lewis, confirmed that the scheme would be mothballed if the changes were not agreed.

He told The Star the company has put in another planning application, and is also planning to appeal against the previous council decision.

He said: “It will have to be mothballed if we cannot find a viable solution. This is just about changing 18 per cent to studio flats.

“Does the council really want to argue this, when there have been demonstrations going on in Sheffield over the loss of green belt to housing? There has not been one objection to our scheme from the public.

“If we have to mothball this scheme, homes will have to be built elsewhere. It feels like a policy has been written some time ago, but the situation has since changed. En-suites don’t work any more.”

CODE, which has other flats developments in cities across the country, said there had been changes in Sheffield including declining student numbers.

They also warned that there was a decline in rental values in Sheffield which was worse than many other regional cities.

It says the latest Cushman and Wakefield Report (Student Accommodation Report 2025) highlighted that the demand pool in Sheffield had fallen by 17.3 per cent, which was ‘unprecedented in a major market, and had resulted in the largest decrease in rents in any location in the UK this year’. The decrease in rents was 5.5 per cent, it added.

CODE say the difference between studio flats, which it wants to fill its new block with, and en-suite flats, is that studio flats come with a kitchen in the room, rather than a shared kitchen and a joint lounge in shared accommodation.

Instead of a shared lounge, the CODE scheme would have a whole floor of shared facilities such as a gym, cinema, and common rooms, for the whole of the building to use.

CODE say whilst viability has worsened, their main reason for wanting to change things was because the previous mix was not attractive to the co-living market and because potential funders are not keen to invest in a unit type which already accounts for 79 per cent of the existing market.

They added: “Our funders would much prefer us to build 100 per cent studios which is consistent with the co-living target market (graduates and young professionals). Graduates and young professionals wishing to live in the city centre do not want en-suite rooms with shared kitchens but prefer studios provided within an affordable price bracket and on-site amenities such as gyms, parcel collection, security and maintenance.”

The building at the centre of the row has already seen some changes from a scheme that was originally given planning permission in a slightly different form.

It is due to be built as three blocks, with the highest standing at 26 storeys.

But that is lower than the figure which was initially mentioned. It was originally due to be 38-storeys and would have been Yorkshire’s tallest building. It was reduced to 32 floors, and then again later to the currently planned 26.

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Although there have been no objections from the public, there have been concerns raised by Sheffield city centre ward councillors.

Councillor Ruth Mersereau, Green Party councillor for City Ward, said: “On behalf of the City Ward councillors, I’d like to object to these latest plans because of the increase in the heights of the blocks (middle block increased from 45 metres to 50.5 metres – 14 storeys to 16 storeys; lower block increased from 33.5 metres to 39 metres – 10 storeys to 12 storeys, as well as the 350 increase in the number of studios (from 756 to 1106).”

And Coun Douglas Johnson, Green Party councillor for City Ward added: “We are disappointed at the proposal to have an entire block of student studio apartments and would not be prepared to support such a scheme in a prime location in the city centre.

“We would much prefer to see a scheme with a full mix of household types, with good quality accommodation for a wider range of households.”