TOMORROW | Liverpool City Region Development Update 2025
There are less than 24 hours to go until Place North West’s annual Liverpool City Region summit. Moved to a larger venue due to high demand for tickets, the event will offer the opportunity to network with the likes of Homes England, Rothschild & Co, Willmott Dixon, and Placefirst.
The Liverpool City Region Development Update will provide you with the opportunity to hear from and put your questions to the leaders of Liverpool, St Helens, and Wirral councils and their developer partners about the projects transforming the city region’s skyline.
The half-day conference will be held at Hilton Liverpool City Centre, 3 Thomas Steers Way, on Tuesday 11 September.
Please note, the event has moved from the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel on Sir Thomas Street to the above address.
Tickets cost £125+VAT. Local authorities and registered providers can purchase tickets at a 50% discount below.
There will be a mix of presentations and panels. Breakfast and lunch are included, providing plenty of opportunity for business development.
Liverpool City Region Development Update is sponsored by Curtins, Muse, and Freeths. Our charity partner is Regeneration Brainery.
The event will provide a rich seam of insight from development experts from across the private and public sectors.
We will hear from Liverpool City Council Leader Cllr Liam Robinson about his vision for the city – from grade A office space to skyscraper living – and get the latest updates on large-scale regeneration projects taking place in Birkenhead, Prescot, and St Helens.
We will also get under the bonnet of the issues the private sector is facing in this part of the world, particularly when it comes to building tall.
As well as in-depth one-to-one discussions and lively panel debates, this event will provide ample opportunities for networking.
At Place, we recognise the importance of spending time with your peers. That’s why we will provide plenty of time to connect with our speakers and fellow attendees throughout the morning, including a pre-programme breakfast and post-programme lunch.
What you’ll take away from the conference
- An understanding of the large-scale projects in train and the ones coming down the track
- Insight into how developers are navigating challenges around building safety and viability
- An idea of the sentiment among Liverpool City Region’s development community
- New contacts for your business
Speakers confirmed so far
Cllr Liam Robinson is the Leader of Liverpool City Council. Robinson will answer questions about Liverpool’s failed new town bid, its proactive attitude towards unlocking regeneration, and how to balance the desire for new development and the need to preserve the city’s historic fabric.
Cllr Paula Basnett is the Leader of Wirral Council. Basnett will provide an update on the controversial Birkenhead market proposals and set out her vision for the rest of the peninsula as it looks to dramatically increase housing delivery and breathe new life into its forgotten spaces.
Cllr Anthony Burns is the Leader of St Helens Council. The regeneration of St Helens town centre is underway and the council has built a momentum that is earning praise from onlookers. The challenge now is keeping it going. Burns will explain how he plans to do that.
Gavin Currie is the chief operating officer of Legacie. Liverpool’s most active developer is responsible for pretty much every crane currently on the skyline. Currie will explain how Legacie asserted its dominance in the city, what comes next, and what other developers should be doing to make their mark.
Hugh Frost is the founder of Beetham. A skyscraper legend, Frost is working on arguably the city’s most exciting project in a generation – a tall building cluster on Liverpool’s waterfront. He will provide an update on where that project is up to and how it has evolved since it was announced last year.
Paul Buntin is the head of development at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority. The combined authority has a growing pipeline of major projects and a life sciences investment zone to keep it occupied. With an integrated settlement around the corner, Buntin will outline the CA’s plans to supercharge regeneration across the city region’s six boroughs.
James Litherland is senior development manager at Cityheart. Active in both Halton and Knowsley, where the transformation of Prescot town centre is the focus, Cityheart knows better than most the challenges of developing high-quality projects in areas of challenged viability and the importance of collaboration to overcome these hurdles.
Jonathan Falkingham is creative director and c0-founder of Urban Splash. In partnership with Igloo Regeneration, Urban Splash has been selected to lead the redevelopment of Festival Gardens, a long-awaited, residential-led regeneration project. Falkingham will provide the lowdown on the approach being taken and how the partnership plans to make the vision a reality.
Rachel Harrison is principal planner at Pegasus. With so many planning documents emerging in Liverpool – not least a new local plan – the development landscape is constantly evolving. Harrison will provide valuable insight into what it all means for you and your projects.
Steven Knowles is director of development management at Muse. With Muse at the helm, the transformation of St Helens town centre is gathering pace. Knowles will provide an update on this project and shine a light on the challenges facing developers across the city region from viability to skills.
Should be a great event,especially if we can get some clarity from Liam Robinson on where he thinks the City will be in 5 years time. Of course we are waiting for progress on Hemisphere, Littlewoods Studios, and Chinatown,etc but he also needs to give us some hints on what of any significance is going through planning, and why there are so many delays.
There seems to be a disconnect too between the City and City Region in terms of the transport requirements, especially in terms of Merseyrail expansion and trams, people see Tyne and Wear getting a major £900m extension to their metro, as well as Leeds getting billions for a complete tram network. The ambition of the Region Mayor doesn’t appear to match other Mayors, and Liverpool seems to get 2nd rate solutions like bendy-buses or new Merseyrail stations pepper-potted around according to what Borough they are in , rather than what is the priority need.
By Anonymous
How about asking Liam Robinson when Hemisphere 1 and 2 will go on site , why the Spine is still largely empty, why no progress on Littlewoods, the cruise terminal, Martins Bank, Pall Mall, Anfield Square, China Town. Why he thinks halving the number of homes to 800 at festival Gardens is a game changer for the city. What he is doing to stop companies like the Bank of New York and Castore leaving the city for Manchester. Why the Labour government cancelled the Port link road, torpedoed the Astra Zeneca inward investment , why Liverpool was left of the list of civil service relocations, why North Liverpool one of the poorest areas in the UK wasnt deemed worthy of New Town status and why the Liverpool Manchester high speed rail link has been kicked into he long grass.
By Anon
I agree with the earlier comments!
By Anonymous
Proving to be a highly popular event with the highlight maybe being the presence of Hugh Frost. It looks like there is optimism there and we desperately need the planning department to speed up the application processing, and for this City Council to show more than ever that they want Liverpool to look and feel like a major city again, which is open for business.
By Anonymous
It looks like it will be a really interesting and hopefully an enlightening event and it is no wonder that the venue has been changed in favour of a larger space given the clearly great number of people who really want to see the city and region move forward. For those of us that can’t attend the event, it would be great if ‘Place’ could do a resume of the event on this site as I am sure that it would be of massive interest to everyone that visits the’Place North West Site’. Hopefully the event will give everyone some real hope that our fine city and region is at last moving forwards in terms of development and planning and that all the barriers to such developments are at last being removed.
By Brendan R
We need more detail on King Edward Triangle. We need dates rather than “Plans” and “Hope”.
By Jack
Ask them all why a young construction professional that wants to work on regeneration projects in the city region is better starting their career in greater Manchester. A litany of design work given away outside the area or to businesses with barely any presence in the city region is a failure on their part and of their development partners. Time and again it happens on major public sector led projects and the local leaders should be held accountable for letting young construction professionals down.
By Steven Litherland
Maybe Liam Robinson can give us dates when we will see cranes in the sky. Liverpool is the best when it comes to “Masterplans” and 30 year plans.
By Timo
Liverpool , the riddle within an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and hopefully PNW can break that code on Nov 11th at this timely conference. Some pivotal people there who need to be asked pointed questions as to why our area never seems to make that next step and get our economy flying and get more construction cranes on the skyline.
Maybe the Homes England person also could be told that if the people of Cheshire don’t want to have a New Town we will gladly take up the offer and rebuild North Liverpool and South Sefton.
By Anonymous
I hope this means we’ll see you there, Anonymous! You’ll have a chance to put your questions directly to our panellists at the event using Sli.do, so you can maintain your anonymity.
By Julia Hatmaker
Ask Liam Robinson why planning takes forever to be approved. Manchester just get on with it and don’t pander to NIMBYS and the silly far left.
By Liverpool needs ambition
There’s too many consultations in the LCR, Just get on with it that’s what the local leaders are elected for.
By Liverpool4Progess
Not sure what Liverpool wants to be. Does it want to be Blackpool, Manchester or New York. The leadership dont really have a clear vision but the consensus is they dont have much ambition and are holding the city back.
By CS
Oh how I wish I was going after reading all these fantastic comments! If anyone went to the Development Conference on Thursday in the Crypt allegedly Spine and Paddington is not full due to Covid and then Economy….. Liam Robinson seemed very pleased that 4 Liverpool areas – the most in the country been given ‘Pride in Place’ allocation – Speke, Newsham Park, Everton and Norris Green – does it not have to be in v bad way to get this? Lots of people were shouting out about the time planning takes.
Re the cost to attend this event – are there no concessions for Students, Unemployed, Charities and CICs – as at £75 still pricey!
By Emma Fitz
I’m guessing there wasn’t much to report here then?
By Anonymous
Au contraire. Our event write-ups are published a week after the event is held, so watch this space.
By Julia Hatmaker