Liverpool signs £230m ‘growth deal’

LIVERPOOL’S £230m Growth Deal was confirmed today with the signing of agreements between cities minister Greg Clark and Robert Hough, chair of the local enterprise partnership (LEP).

It is claimed the deal will create 15,000 jobs in Merseyside, allow up to 16,000 new homes to be built and generate up to £30million in public and private spending.

The Government announced a series of Growth Deals earlier in the year, committing £10bn to the regions over the next five years. The move follows Michael Heseltine’s 2012 call for £48bn to be devolved to the country’s LEPs.

The allocation to the North West’s five LEPs – which bid for and administer the cash – included confirmed funding for 2015-16 and an “indicative award ” for 2016-17 onwards.

In addition to Liverpool, Greater Manchester secured £476.7m, Lancashire £234m, Cumbria £26.8m, and Cheshire and Warrington £142.7m. But of the £1.1bn North West total, just £330m has been confirmed for 2015-16, with the remainder classified as indicative.

This is around the same as the annual budget of the now defunct North West Development Agency which was closed down and replaced by the LEPs, along with the England’s other development agencies, by the coaltion government.

The Liverpool schemes that will be funded by the deal include:

• A £47.7m package of improvements for six colleges.
• Over £50m of investment in key transport connections into and within Liverpool City Centre.
• A reshaped Liverpool Skills for Growth Bank – £4.64m over three years (2015/16 to 2017/18).
• Committing to a second International Festival of Business in 2016;
• Access improvements at Knowsley Industrial Park.

Robert Hough said: “Delivering our Growth Deal will be a significant step forward in realising our ambitions and the potential of the city region to became an economic powerhouse.”

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