THING OF THE WEEK
AGENDA… A new year is all about putting your best foot forward and hitting the ground running. However, Liverpool City Council’s first planning meeting of 2026 left the city’s development community feeling deflated.
There have been murmurings of discontent this week after an agenda comprising a two-person children’s home and three tree protection orders was put before the committee. The lack of skyscrapers and grade A offices coming forward in the city is causing “immense frustration” among the development sector, according to one source.
Credit: Ben Moses via Unsplash
SPRING… The office market is on the rebound. At least that is the view of Halton Council, which is planning to convert an indoor trampoline park in Runcorn into a workspace hub for start-ups. The unassuming industrial unit off Shaw Street will act as a springboard for businesses seeking a place to base themselves from and put some bounce in the step of local commerce.
Padel is a rapidly growing sport. Credit: Tomasz Krawczyk via Unsplash
STABILITY… We ended 2025 praying for more stability in 2026 but Donald Trump, famously teetotal, said hold my diet coke and pressed go on a military operation in Venezuela. Sadly, this kind of global upheaval, which does little to calm the nerves of edgy markets, is likely to be the amuse bouche in another mad year, rather than the main course. At least there is one sure thing we can rely on: padel. The UK’s fasting growing sport is showing no signs of slowing down this year with plans for facilities across the North West already tabled in the opening week of the year including in Preston.
Cllr Bev Craig now has some more letters after her name. Credit: via RDPR
HONOURED… Huge congratulations to the North West recipients of honours from the King who can presumably now ditch their new year’s resolutions and bask in the warm glow of a few new letters at the end of their names. Who needs to reduce their screen time or eat more veg when you’ve just been given an OBE? Cllr Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council was given one for services to local government, as was Mo Isap, the chair of Lancashire Business Board, for services to education. Vernon Everitt, Greater Manchester transport commissioner, bagged an CBE for services to transport. Read the full list of recipients.
A&O Hostels’ mistakenly placed civic pride shows just how far Salford has come. Credit: Salford City Council
QPI… Salford’s star has been rising for years but being located so close to bustling Manchester means it has often struggled to make a name for itself. All too often companies opening offices on the Salford side of the Irwell feel it necessary to cling to the neighboring city’s coattails. Deloitte calls its 101 Embankment site its “Manchester office” despite it being located in Salford and even the city’s university cannot resist, calling itself the University of Salford, Manchester on some signs.
However, one business that has recently arrived in the area has turned this trend on its head. A&O Hostels has bought two hotels on Manchester’s Portland Street but, when you go on the company’s website, the image depicting its “Manchester City Centre” locations is Salford Quays. I guess you could call that a Quays performance indicator of Salford’s continuing rise.
I never thought I would say this – but can we get the commissioners back into LCC? It seems they left prematurely…
By Anonymous
Liverpool is doomed with its current planning committee. I would say the government needs to step in but they couldn’t also run a bath.
By Anonymous
LCC not fit for purpose.
By Anonymous
The excuse with Liverpool was always “Its the tories” but anyone who knows the city know its the abysmal local leadership. Manchester is Labour and had tory govt but they are booming.
By Trevor
Deloitte are far from alone in describing an office location in Salford as the ‘Manchester Office’ – the Civil Service Careers website lists the HMRC’s New Bailey office as their ‘Manchester’ location, the Competition and Markets Authority – who also have office space on that side of the river – declare that they “have staff in London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, MANCHESTER and Darlington”, and so on….
By Salfordian
Labour out of Liverpool
By Anonymous
With regard to the meagre number of applications to the LCC planning committee, is this due to the lack of them or the slow moving proceedures of the committee?
Whatever it is it reflects badly on the City
By Liverpolitis
PNW is the only media who actually hold Liverpool “Leadership” to account. Liverpool Echo is a joke it’s political edition is like a Labour spokesman. The younger generation have to leave because the city is going nowhere.
By Liverpool needs ambition
Save the trees! And I don’t mean the ones in the LCC planning department.
By Roy
I’m not sure what the issue is in Liverpool. They seem completed leaderless. Who is taking responsibility for delivery? Who is responsible for pushing projects through the system? Officers are a wall of negativity and treat developers like enemies of the city, and the senior leadership team (both politicians and department directors) seem too scared of the unions to do anything to get the officers in line.
By Anonymous
To perhaps provide some balance on the Liverpool Planning Committee front it isn’t entirely unusual for the first meeting of the year to be particularly brief/light across the authorities I deal with. With bank holidays, forced/optional annual leave and the difficulties of getting comments/assistance from consultees it is rather tricky getting anything large scale or complex to January meetings, particularly if it hasn’t largely been boxed off by November.
By JohnMac
I think they should make the whole of Greater Manchester a city, like London. The boroughs need to be renamed the GM Borough of, wherever and the City of Salford retains its status, like Westminster does in the London set up. The conurbation is in effect one city now.
By Elephant
LCC has had 2 planning appeals allowed with costs awarded against them in the past 2 weeks. How much longer before someone shows some leadership and gets a grip of the planning department? It’s clear that it is still not fit for purpose.
By Anonymous
The lack of applications to review at committee surely must simply reflect the quantity of submissions at the moment? That’s can’t be the fault of the committee?!
By north
I think the focus of discontent on Liverpool City Council needs to extend also to their friends in the Combined Authority. More powers and cash than ever and what was the last big game changing transport or regeneration scheme actually completed with their support? Littlewoods, Pall Mall, Festival Gardens all years behind schedule. No sign of a start on the Baltic train station due to open in 2027! More delivery and less rhetoric required urgently, Liverpool sliding away into the slipstream of other northern cities likes Leeds and Manchester and in danger of falling behind the likes of Sheffield very shortly.
By Anonymous
The problem at Liverpool is that Liam Robinson is terrified of dealing with developers and getting a grip on his planning committee, given recent history. It’s empowered the planning committee to play politics rather than growing a spine, hence the two recent losses at appeal, plus the glacial progress major schemes make as the planners indulge themselves in unviable fantasies. The lack of pace; the imposition of cost on developers; and total lack of commercial understanding makes for a toxic brew. Any wonder there are so few tower cranes on the skyline?
By Anonymous