£9m brownfield cash to unlock 671 homes

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has revealed the next seven sites that will benefit from the £60m Brownfield Land Fund pot – a list that includes Step Places’ 98 residences on former Alder Hey Children’s Hospital land and Vistry Group’s push for 243 houses on an old brickworks in St Helens.

The BLF has already contributed £41.5m to 29 projects, which should enable the delivery of nearly 3,400 homes. It is hoped that the £60m fund, announced in 2020, will ultimately unlock the building of 4,000 homes across the region.

This latest tranche will see projects in St Helens, Liverpool, Sefton, Runcorn, Hoylake, and Bootle secure funds.

“We are working hard to tackle the housing shortage and ensure that people right across our area have a great choice of high-quality homes,” said combined authority cabinet member for housing and regeneration and Knowsley Council Leader Cllr Graham Morgan.

“Building on brownfield sites is key to making that happen – there are around 700 of them with enough space to build 42,000 homes,” he continued.

“The developments in this latest round of funding approvals are a great mix of schemes offering a wide range of different housing types.  We need to ensure that, across our city region, we are building homes to suit everybody.”

The sites to receive funding are:

• £2.9m for Vistry Group’s redevelopment of the former Ibstock Brickworks site off Chester Lane in St Helens. The project would see the building of 243 homes, including 123 ones that are designated affordable.
• £1.5m for Step Places’ Springfield Gardens mini neighbourhood on land formerly owned by Alder Hey Children’s Hospital off Knotty Ash in Liverpool. The project would see the building of 59 retirement apartments, 8 flats for those with autism, and 31 townhouses.
• £1.3m for Plus Dane Housing’s 104 homes on the former Johnsons Building site in Bootle.
• £1.1m for Halton Housing’s bid to construct 66 homes on land off Runcorn’s High Street.
• £1m for Onward Homes’ redevelopment of the old bus depot off Hawthorne Road in Sefton. The project would see the delivery of 67 homes for affordable rent.
• £795,000 for Sandway Homes’ 53 residences on the site of the old Bootle High School in Netherton.
• £299,000 for Torus Housing to complete the stalled Quadrant project in Hoylake. The scheme would see 40 affordable rent flats hit the market, as well as 17 commercial units.

Reflecting on the announcement about the BLF projects, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “I want everyone in our area to have access to high-quality, affordable homes. Yet for too many ordinary people, home ownership feels out of reach, and affordable rents are in increasingly short supply.

“That’s why I am determined to turbocharge a new generation of housebuilding – including a return, at long last, to council housing in the region in addition to funding the aspirational homes that are so desperately needed.”

He added: “Since I was elected, we have seen more than 30,000 homes built in the region with a brownfield first approach – turning once-forgotten areas back into thriving communities while protecting our precious green spaces.”