St Helens to create Parkside Freeport Investment Fund

Money from business rates from the Parkside site will go into the fund, which will be ringfenced for specific revenue and capital projects by the council.

The creation of the Parkside Freeport Investment Fund is a requirement for Parkside to be one of three Liverpool City Region Freeport tax sites. The other two are 3MG in Widnes and Wirral Waters.

One of the benefits of having a freeport tax site is that the local council can retain the business rates accumulated on the site for its own use. That is the focus of the fund, which will first be centred on supporting the delivery of the entire 505-acre Parkside industrial complex.

Parkside is being built on the site of the former Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows. It is being delivered by Parkside Regeneration, a joint venture between St Helens Council and developer Langtree. The first phase of the scheme is currently awaiting planning permission and calls for the building of 793,200 sq ft of industrial space.

In the future, the council has said that the fund will support improving highways, boosting power provisions, and enabling a rail freight interchange.

While the fund will not launch until 2024, it took a large step forward after St Helens Council’s cabinet approved its creation last week.

Cllr Martin Bond, cabinet member for corporate services, said: “The Parkside Freeport Investment fund is a critical part of the development of Parkside and is one that is necessary to help it reach its full potential.

“The freeport status of Parkside unlocks so much more potential and the reinvestment of the business rates received on this site, which will be 100 per cent in the case of Parkside, will enable us to support wider regeneration, growing the jobs market for residents and supporting the local supply chain opportunities that a venture such as this will bring,” Bond continued.

“All future spending decisions will be brought back to council for approval to make sure that the fund is being used in an appropriate way.”

You can read more about the first phase of Parkside by searching application reference number P/2023/0341/RES on the St Helens Council planning portal.