MIPIM: Liverpool needs private sector to fill grant gap – Anderson

Liverpool is presenting potential investors with an £11bn portfolio of “oven-ready” sites at the international property conference, part of the city region’s strategy to bridge the funding gap left by Government cuts, said Mayor Joe Anderson.

There are 27 “major property opportunities” being showcased by Liverpool at MIPIM, which is taking place this week in Cannes. According to Anderson, £2bn of projects have started on site, £3.5bn have planning permission, and Liverpool Waters accounts for more than half of the total development value, at £5.5bn.

Speaking to Place North West, Anderson said that cuts to grant funding continued to be the biggest threat to the city’s growth.

“We have to spend any new income to prop up the drop in Government grant funding. We want to invest in new opportunities and skills, but instead have to use funds to fill in the grant gap,” he said.

“But it’s imperative that we grow our economy, which is why we’re here creating an environment for new investors.”

Further cuts to local government spending are expected in Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget announcement on Wednesday, and Anderson said he was preparing himself for Liverpool to take another big hit.

“It is an ignorance by Whitehall in which it fails to understand the connect between austerity and growth. The growth in Liverpool and Manchester is happening in spite of what the Government is doing.

“The figures speak for themselves. Liverpool has some of the toughest challenges, is the most reliant on Government, but is getting the most cut.”

While hotels and student accommodation have dominated the Liverpool City Council planning agendas in recent years, Anderson said that it was “a myth” that Liverpool’s economy was largely city centre-focused, and dominated by leisure and tourism.

The list of sites which Liverpool is presenting at MIPIM includes Pall Mall, a proposed £200m office development which was first outlined in 2008, the £200m Knowledge Quarter which is a selection of sites in the east of the city around the university, and the £150m mixed-use Cains Brewery.

Anderson said that the list of sites drew on and moved beyond the Strategic Investment Framework announced for the city in 2012.

“A lot of sites within the investment framework are being developed out, and as the market changes, we’ve changed and adapted too.

“The SIF was always intended to be a living, breathing document, hence the new opportunities we’re outlining here.”

Key Liverpool sites promoted at MIPIM this week

King’s Dock

Location: King’s Waterfront, Liverpool City Centre

Type: Mixed use development focussing on leisure/entertainment, hotel, restaurants, water-based attractions and residential

Value: £30-50m

Site Size: 3.26 hectares

Planning Status: Existing planning framework under review; development partner to be sought

Adjacent occupiers: Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre, Exhibition Centre Liverpool, Pullman Hotel, Jury’s Inn

 

Pall Mall

Commercial District, Liverpool City Centre

Commercial-led mixed use development site

3.5 hectares with scope for 200,000 sq metres of office floorspace

£100-200m

Supplementary Planning Document agreed; development partner being sought

No occupiers

 

Stonebridge Cross & Stonebridge Business Park

Off East Lancashire Road, north-east Liverpool

Distribution warehousing, offices and light industrial

Various sites totalling 31.2 hectares

£60-70m

Permission granted for B1/B2/B8 on some of the sites

Adjacent occupiers: DPD Geopost, TJ Morris (Home Bargains)

 

Liverpool International Business Park

Speke, South Liverpool

B1 (offices), B2 (general industrial), B8 (distribution warehousing)

£30-40m

Various opportunities totalling 10.11 hectares

Outline permission for B1/B2/B8

Current occupiers: B&M, Johnson Controls

 

Knowledge Quarter

Liverpool City Centre, eastern zone

Educational/research led development

£100-200m+

Various sites totalling over 50 hectares; expansion space proposals underway

Adjacent occupiers: University of Liverpool

 

New Chinatown

Great George Street, Liverpool City Centre

Leisure, retail, business and live/work space

£200m

2.13 hectares

Outline permission granted

Future occupiers: Leisure and commercial businesses, residents

 

 

North Liverpool Atlantic Gateway

Off Great Howard Street (A565), North Liverpool

Mixed use zone with offices, light and general industry, retail trade counters, education and training facilities, hotels and residential.

£100m+

Various sites with an area totalling over 90 hectares

Masterplan for comprehensive redevelopment in preparation

Adjacent occupiers: Harcourt, Peel, HCA

 

Stanley Dock

Off Regent Road, North Liverpool

Mixed use development with residential, public exhibition space and leisure facilities including hotels

£80m

5 hectares

Permission applied for residential and public exhibition; permission granted for two hotels.

Current occupiers: Titanic Hotel and Conference Centre

 

Liverpool Innovation Park / Creative & Digital Campus

Off Edge Lane, East Liverpool

Mixed uses including offices, theatre school, film & television studios including refurbishment of the historic Littlewoods Building

£25-40m

Various sites with an area totalling over 10.3 hectares

Permission in place for B1/B2/B8.  Permission being sought for film studios (sui generis)

Current occupiers: Various innovative companies

Future occupiers: Film/television companies and associated digital businesses

 

Former Garden Festival Site

Off Riverside Drive, South Liverpool

Predominantly residential with ground floor space for local shops, cafes and community facilities overlooking the River Mersey and Festival Gardens parkland.

£100m+

11 hectares

Permission granted for residential development (expires 2021)

Future occupiers: Residents

 

Liverpool Waters

Off Regent Road, North Liverpool

Mixed use development with offices, commercial, residential, hotels, visitor attractions and community facilities

£5.5bn

60 hectares

Outline permission granted

Future occupiers: Residents and businesses

 

Cains Brewery Village

Baltic area, Liverpool City Centre

Mixed use development with residential, food retail, hotel, leisure (cinema, cafes, restaurants) and light industrial

£150m

2.5 hectares

Planning permission granted

Future occupiers: Residents and businesses

Your Comments

Read our comments policy

Would love to understand his definition of “oven ready”

By Observer

Same old sites being touted around the market. These have been marketed to many investors and developers for the last couple of years – they haven’t sold because the land owners’ price aspirations are way too high.
Even the council-backed cowboys building studios on Chinese money find the prices too high – and that’s saying something!

By SC

has Joe has missed off the school sites he plans to sell/ keeps selling. Oh sorry they will go straight to a certain house builder based in Wales.

By Mary Smiley

For heavens sake. If he walks away with money for the city, I feel it will be in spite of his sales pitch as well as those cuts he never seems to shut up about.

By Mike

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