I think most people are missing the point. There is one word that describes all the new high rises going up in Sheffield and that is "Money". It has got nothing to do with population increase or decrease, married, not married, kids, no kids, it is how much money can we make out of this block of land. Sheffield has been passed for bigger inner city height restrictions for accomodation so everybody with a few million are jumping on the band wagon.
I get paid to build these appartment blocks, and I put in 100 percent effort and all my skill into making them nice, but as time goes on and architects realize they have f***ed up, the job starts getting behind, the building company starts to loose money, then the job goes to pot. Corners get cut everybody blames everybody else and the work gets shoddy. This is only going to get worse too because companies are undercutting each other to get the contract, and putting ridiculous time frames on completion. Then, half way through the job they realize , they are going to have to pay penalties because the job is not going to be finished on time so again the job goes to pot. A lot of these appartments I have built are spacious especially the penthouses but most of them are not aimed at 1 single person living in them. Kitchen, lounge, 2 or 3 bedrooms, bathroom. I would say these are aimed at rich students or business people who want to share, maybe even the business man or woman who stay in the city during the week and go home for the weekends. I cant see these places becoming tenements, all the new student accomodation though is a different story.