£40m earmarked to cut emissions across Liverpool City Region’s civic estate

The Cunard Building and Bootle Leisure Centre are among the 35 buildings that will benefit from a slug of the funding, aimed at reducing the carbon footprints of the publicly owned assets.

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has secured £36m from the government’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme for the latest project aimed at making the city region net zero by 2035 at the latest.

Additional funding from local authorities will take the total pot to £40m.

The cash will be spent connecting sites including the Cunard and George’s Dock on Liverpool’s waterfront to the district heat network that already serves the Tobacco Warehouse and Titanic Hotel.

The network is driven by the Mersey Heat Energy Centre, developed by The Peel Group and Ener-Vate, which uses one of the UK’s largest water source heat pumps to extract energy from canal water.

Insulation upgrades, the installation of solar panels, and replacement of fossil-fuel heating systems are also planned to halve the emissions across the 35 buildings, including Bootle Library, Wirral Country Park, Prescot Soccer Centre, and Landican Cemetery.

Public buildings are responsible for 13% of the total 77,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted across the 600 buildings owned by the combined authority, the organisation said.

James Johnson, head of regional programme at the North West Net Zero Hub, said the programme would help cut both emissions and costs.

“Retrofitting these buildings is a significant step, not only due to the reduction in emissions, but also in terms of the efficiencies that this will bring to the public estate.

“Heat decarbonisation and energy-saving measures will help to reduce running costs and allow those savings to be focused back into communities. Lower energy bills mean more public money that can be spent on services.”

Cllr Anthony Burns, Liverpool City Region cabinet member for net zero, said:   “Cutting carbon is one of the most important ways we can improve people’s everyday lives, and this programme shows the scale of our ambition.

“By transforming our civic buildings, we’re reducing emissions, lowering energy bills and future‑proofing public services for decades to come.”