Everton secures £45m from Liverpool City Region
Divvied up between a £15m grant and £30m loan, the funds will support the creation of the new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock and improvements to the surrounding area.
At a meeting on Friday, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority voted to approve the funding proposal. The authority said the stadium project would act as a catalyst for “transformational regeneration” of north docks and the area around Goodison Park, where the team’s current stadium sits.
According to Everton FC, the £500m project will boost the city region’s economy by more than £1bn and bring in more than 1.4m visitors to the region every year. The 52,888-seat stadium will take three years to build.
Everton chief executive Denise Barrett-Baxendale described the new stadium as a “world-class sporting arena” and praised the scheme for what it will do for the community. She said:
“It will bring with it economic regeneration, job creation, new visitors to our city and a wealth of opportunities for thousands of local people, breathing new life into the north of Liverpool and acting as a catalyst to accelerate other redevelopment projects in the area.”
Within three years of the team moving to its new home, Goodison Park will be redeveloped into a mix of housing, offices, retail and community spaces. Everton estimated that this part of the project will create more than £58.2m worth of social value. Outline planning consent has already been granted for the scheme.
The combined authority money does come with strings attached – Everton must meet targets for employment and training opportunities for locals and provide social value. Everton will lead campaigns on chronic health issues impacting the community.
The football club will also increase the funding for its charity, Everton in the Community, which will let it increase its efforts to support education, employment, youth projects, asylum seekers and veterans.
Interest received from the loan could be used to fund other projects, according to the combined authority.
The Bramley-Moore Dock Everton stadium is part of Peel L&P’s £5bn Liverpool Waters project. Laing O’Rourke is the lead contractor on the project. Pattern Design is the architect, with Planit-IE acting as landscape architect. CBRE is the planning consultant for the scheme. Yorkshire-based Severfield is providing the steel for the project.
Can the council confirm that the bid for this money came at the expense of a bid for money to kick start the long awaited Pall Mall office development?
Other boroughs are sensibly developing their own office stock pipeline, whereas the central borough seems to have no plan whatsoever. Despite having lost over four million square feet of space to profiteering.
By Jeff
It’s good for Everton but I wish the pot was distributed around the unaptly named Liverpool city region equally.
By Heswall
Liverpool is 40% of the population of Liverpool City Region and 60% of the businesses. That said, they have funded:
– Glass Futures, St Helens
– Tonnes around Wirral Waters
– Millions into Southport, on top of the Towns Fund
– Expansion at Scitech Daresbury, and area around Runcorn station
– Kirkby town centre regen, Shakespeare theatre in Huyton
As well as tonnes of cross-city region stuff, like their digital network and new modern trains.
Also, don’t forget that being able to fund projects in the other districts depends on them having deliverable projects ready to go…
By Combined Authority
Great, Might get them a new central midfielder.
By Anonymous
Fifteen million seems a very generous gift in these straitened times!I wonder if my wheelie bin will be emptied this week?
By Peter Turnbull
@Jeff. Is that the same Pall Mall office development they destroyed a park for? This is another reason no one has any faith in Liverpool. Embrace the imminent Saturday afternoon chaos.
By Bixteth boy