Liverpool given leeway on £25m govt grant repayment
The city council will only have to pay back just over £4m of the eight-figure total despite failing to stick to the terms of the funding agreement.
Under the conditions attached to the £25m grant – awarded as part of the Regional Growth Fund – Liverpool City Council was told it must use the money to create 799 new or safeguarded jobs at Kings Dock, which forms part of the wider North Liverpool City Fringe RGF programme.
However, the authority is unable to prove it has done this in the period since the grant was awarded in 2017.
Now, the city council and the Department for Levelling Up, Homes, and Communities have reached an accord on repayment terms.
Rather than having to pay back the entire amount after failing to hit the job creation target, Liverpool will repay just the £4.1m it spent acquiring Kings Dock from Homes England.
It has been agreed between DLUHC and the city council that the repayments will come from the proceeds of the planned future sale of Kings Dock.
Twelve months ago, Liverpool City Council appointed a project team to progress plans for the redevelopment of Kings Dock, supported by £1m from the combined authority.
BDP and Faithful+Gould were picked to work up plans that would see the eight-acre site transformed into a residential-led, mixed-use development with potential for a major cultural or leisure venue.
Choosing to go down the residential-led route marks a departure from what was proposed at Kings Dock when the RGF grant was awarded.
At that time, plans for the site featured 75,000 sq ft of office space capable of accommodating 875 jobs.
7 years later and still little progress, ok we have a massive new MSCP at Kings Dock but the site of the burnt out car park is still idle, the residences once known as The Block are empty ,and no news has come through of any really promising development taking place, a bit like Festival Gardens.
By Anonymous