Unanimous vote for Liverpool’s first MDC

Set across 430 acres of brownfield stretching from the city centre’s waterfront to Everton FC’s Hill Dickinson Stadium, Liverpool North Docks Mayoral Development Corporation will help lead the delivery of up to 17,000 homes and 5m sq ft of commercial and employment space.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority gave the unanimous go-ahead to establish the MDC on Friday. Mayor Steve Rotheram will now petition Parliament for the MDC to be formally established.

MDCs are statutory bodies focused on speeding up regeneration and development delivery within a specific geography. Each has its own unique set of powers.

Liverpool North Docks MDC is due to have powers over planning, land assembly and CPOs, infrastructure delivery, funding incentives for stalled site development, and developing, managing, and selling land and assets.

Rotheram made the case for the MDC, noting that Liverpool has never been short on ideas but the pace of delivery has failed to meet those expectations.

“The problem has never been a lack of ambition,” he said. “It’s been the sheer complexity of getting so many different sites, landowners, bits of infrastructure and investment moving in the same direction. That’s exactly what an MDC can help us do.”

He added: “Now we can finally start joining the dots and turning one of Liverpool’s greatest untapped opportunities into a place that creates jobs, homes and opportunity for generations to come.”

Liverpool City Council Leader Cllr Liam Robinson described the MDC agreement as “a hugely important moment” for the city.

“The North Docks represents one of the largest regeneration opportunities in the country,” he said.

“The creation of a mayoral development corporation will help ensure we can maximise its economic, social, and environmental potential; and will re-establish Liverpool’s world renown waterfront into an area that will benefit all our residents.”