Southampton City Council (SCC) has approved planning permission for the construction of a new 25-storey hotel and apartment building, which is to become one of the tallest buildings in the city.

Orchard Homes is the developer behind the £30m project, which will see a three or four-star hotel and restaurant will occupy six storeys of the new building, with a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom properties contained on the remaining 19 floors. The building will be built on the former Cedar Press site between the city's Royal Crescent Road and Saltmarsh Road, and SCC leader Royston Smith hopes that the scheme will encourage further development in Southampton.

Smith said: "It demonstrates that the developers have confidence in the city's future. Gaining planning consent is an important first step towards Orchard Homes' ambition to complete this impressive building in the not too distant future and help transform the city's skyline." Ken Lake, managing director of Orchard Homes, added: "This scheme will create an iconic building in a key part of the city centre. In the meantime, we all appreciate the wider market forces that prevail in our economy and we hope to start work on site as soon conditions allow."