Liverpool Council to sell historic church for £1
LIVERPOOL City Council has agreed to sell off the Grade II*-listed St Andrew’s Church on Rodney St close to the city’s cathedral to a developer of student properties for just £1.
The council spent £100,000 in legal fees acquiring the church from its former owner three years ago in response to a local newspaper campaign to save buildings under threat, and has spent a further £150,000 on emergency repairs since.
However, they have agreed to sell the building for a nominal fee as its building officers argue there is still a “conservation deficit” or funding gap of around £623,000 needed to bring it back into proper use.
The council may even contribute up to £300,000 from funds earmarked for specialist conservation and regeneration pots to help the developer with its plan to bring forward 100 student properties within the former Scottish Presbyterian church, which hasn’t been used as a place of worship since 1976.
Middle England Developments is a Wirral-based student properties specialist owned by Nigel Russell.
It has already completed the conversion of the Grade II-listed Streatlam Towers on Princes Road and the Arena House building on Duke St within the Ropewalks conservation square. It is also on site with two other schemes and is proposing a conversion of the Hatton Garden Fire Station, which is also Grade II-listed.
According to a report prepared for councillors ahead of last Friday’s decision to sell the building, Middle England Developments is also likely to apply for up to £300,000 of funding from English Heritage.
Any further funding from the council would be subject to a further approval process and conditions are likely to be attached to the sale to ensure that grants are repaid before the company takes a profit from the development.
It adds that the developer could bring forward a scheme within the next 12-18 months and could begin marketing the properties as soon as the lease is signed.
“For such a difficult and intractable historic building that has remained ruinous for decades, this is an important opportunity to support a realistic and deliverable solution,” it said.
