Knowsley hunts funding to kickstart £107m Huyton regen

More than two years after appointing Genr8/Kajima as development partner for the project, Knowsley Council is seeking grant funding from Homes England to plug a £28m viability gap holding up the first phase.

Phase one, branded as St Michael’s Place, would feature an 85,000 sq ft council HQ, 72 homes, a 130-bed hotel, a 3.3-acre village green, a 147-space car park, and the relocation of the town’ library. It will cost an estimated £107m to deliver.

The council’s existing 120,000 sq ft civic estate, which has reached the end of its lifespan, would be demolished to make way for the scheme, which is expected to complete in 2028.

The second phase would feature an additional 300 homes and another 65,000 sq ft of workspace. Overall, the regeneration of Huyton town centre would cost £163m, according to a Knowsley cabinet report.

The funding for the first phase is expected to come from a mixture of grants, council coffers, and private sector investment. To date, the council has ploughed £13m into Huyton town centre for acquisitions and early stage works.

Next week, the council’s cabinet will meet to agree the expenditure of £3.6m to progress the project through to planning stage – £2m of this figure will come from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

In addition, the council is expected submit a brownfield funding bid to Homes England to plug the identified viability gap – £18m for the offices and £9.8m for the hotel

The cabinet report states that Huyton has been “overlooked on five occasions for central government funding”.