Liverpool nudges local plan towards submission
Starting in August, the public and the city’s development community will have six weeks to submit feedback on the city council’s latest draft of the 200-page spatial strategy.
Liverpool City Council’s cabinet will meet next week to trigger the start of the local plan consultation ahead of the draft being submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. If adopted, the framework will replace the authority’s existing local plan, adopted in 2022.
The refreshed plan sets out 150 sites where 33,500 homes and 5.8m sq ft of employment space could be delivered over the next 15 years up to 2043.
A consultation on an earlier draft covering 2025-2041 was held last September. In that draft, the number of net new homes to be delivered was lower at just shy of 30,000 and the amount of employment space was higher at 7.4m sq ft.
The latest draft states that around half of the 33,500 homes target could be met by schemes that have already been approved or are committed.
It also supports large-scale developments already in train that could bear fruit over the plan period including Festival Gardens, Liverpool North Docks – which will soon be governed by a mayoral development corporation – and Paddington Village.
The draft can be viewed online. Residential allocations can be found on pages 74 to 81 and employment land allocations can be found on pages 84 to 87.
The current timeline estimates the plan could be adopted by September 2027.
Oh god no.
Not another LCC ‘plan’
By Eric
Some of the policy changes include,
Introducing a minimum space standard of 43sq. m for 1-bed 1-person dwellings in the city centre;
No more than 40% of new dwellings proposed in the city centre/ city centre fringe should be1 bed properties, of which no more than 50% should be 1-bed, 1-person properties;
At least 20% of new dwellings in the city centre are 3-bed properties, rising to 30% in the city centre fringe;
At least 20% of new dwellings to be “affordable”, of which:
50% should be social rented dwellings
25% should be affordable rented dwellings; and
25% should be intermediate/ shared equity dwellings. Also tighter restrictions on “tall buildings”. Any developer looking at these policies will not go near Liverpool.
By Anonymous
More over prescription.
By Anonymous
To quote Victor Meldrew of the TV comedy ‘One foot in the grave’ fame, I don’t !!!!!!! believe it! I have quoted Victor Meldrew because LCC are yet again clearly determined to put another of Liverpool’s feet fairly and squarely in the grave with yet another downward looking plan and another consultation which will cost thousands of pounds and which will be totally ignored by LCC along with all the others which appear on a seemingly monthly basis and which will be filed away in a secret area code named ‘THE BIN’. LCC need to be saying that the city is open for business and open for development of all types and it should not be putting businesses off by coming up with a straight jacket of plans that no forward thinking and ideas lead business could make a go of. LCC you are taking the city I dearly love and care for backwards and not forwards.
By Brendan R
@ Anon 5.55pm, if these figures are correct then Liverpool City Council has once again shot itself in the foot. It is effectively putting barriers up against developers when it has no development going on, so how will this attract development. We have little or no new development coming through, we have only 2 active cranes in the city centre, yet whoever is coming up with these plans seems to think they will be beneficial. We have a number of developments seemingly stuck in bureaucratic delays at present and some of those might not happen due to cost increases, This plan is a recipe for disaster and the eyesore, wasteland gaps in Liverpool city centre will persist, we just don’t think like an open for business big city..
By Anonymous
It’s another load of toffee that is being proposed, which sadly impacts the city in a negative, not positive way.
No matter what any feedback is, they will push ahead with this as they always know what is a best……. Till it’s too late!
By TaxPayer
So many new builds (built in last 20 years) are visably falling apart already with bits of cladding missing and film peeling off panelling. Maybe any local plan should consider this.
By Anonymous
Another plan another tick box no change for the better same old rubbish
By Anonymous
An excellent Plan… to direct developers and investors to Manchester.
By Anonymous
If Consultations and Masterplans were an Olympic Sport Liverpool would win Gold
By Peter
Council plans are for the people who are going to live in these places not for developers making money. People want decent housing at an affordable price. Most young people will never be able to afford their own home.
By Jo
Tell me again in ten years. Maybe they can do push instead of nudge. But I doubt it
By Eric
If anybody from LCC is reading this, aren’t you embarrassed by all the plans that take forever or don’t happen. Best to keep it to yourself until you know it’s happening
By Mr stubbs
The plan also includes tighter housing mix controls including a housing mix justification statement for any developments with 150 + homes. Exceedance of Nationally Described Space Standards, whole life carbon assessments for major developments and a number of other policies which are anti development. Given the increase in costs and time around any Gateway 2 applications this new local plan I believe is another nail in the coffin for development in the city.
By Anonymous
Jo 12.28pm, you don’t like developers making money? Do you like anyone making money, as that’s what keeps the world’s economies ticking over. Stopping developers making money won’t build you more social or affordable housing in this city, in fact the city will die and it’s economy will fail as business deserts Liverpool.
Even the Housing Associations have to build homes for sale and rent at market prices in order to make a surplus that allows them to provide so called affordable homes.
We have plenty of bomb sites and wilderness in this city to allow private developers to build homes, and for Housing Associations to provide them too.
By Anonymous
Since 2 July on PNW we have 3 consultations announced in the city, one re Spatial Strategy, another for Central Station, and a third re the North Docks. If we add these to the tons of other consultations that have been announced or undertaken I can only deduce those in power are incapable of getting on with anything without enduring a moan fest from Echo readers.
My observations are that the general ,uninformed consensus from those who respond is “why do we need this, that, or the other”, and when it comes to something like housing it’s generally we want suburban houses and bungalows plonked in the city centre. Our previous city fathers knew how to design a city, unfortunately many people today have limited consideration for style or aesthetics, if we left things to them Liverpool would look like Alice Springs in the 1950s.
By Anonymous