Liverpool doesn’t need grants for growth, says Anderson

LIVERPOOL City Council leader Cllr Joe Anderson is confident that the regeneration activity around the city will not be curtailed by public sector cuts.

Anderson said that major schemes from the likes of Peel, Merepark and Derwent Holdings were “nothing to do with Europe, JESSICA or any other public funding”.

“All of these schemes are taking place without public sector funding,” he told TheBusinessDesk.com.

“OK, Edge Lane involves putting in bits of land in swaps and we’re putting in the land at Stonebridge Cross but there’s no grant funding involved.”

Anderson, who has been leader of Liverpool City Council since last May’s elections, has styled himself as city’s “Business champion” and has taken a hands-on involvement in promoting the city through initiatives such as the city’s Shanghai Expo Pavilion and its subsequent relocation London to create the Liverpool  “embassy”.

He has also been involved with the creation of a “business-friendly” Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) board, which includes representatives from Jaguar and BT alongside longstandting Tesco chief Terry Leahy, who will be approached to chair the LEP board once he steps down from the day job next month.

“I’m promoting our city as the capital of the North and we want to be recognised as the most business-friendly city in the country,” said Anderson. “These are big ambitions but they’re matched by big opportunities.”

He said that the work done in promoting Liverpool in Shanghai, where the city’s stand was the third-most popular in terms of visitor numbers during the exhibition, has already begun to pay dividends since the Expo ended last October, hosting four delegations of Chinese government officials who are taking an interest in Peel’s £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme.

“Shanghai proved 100% that Liverpool is one of the most famous and iconic cities in the world,” he said.

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Moreover, he believes it to have been a more worthwhile exercise than attending the annual MIPIM property conference which takes place next month in Cannes, where the city will have representatives but unlike previous years will not take large exhibition spaces.

“The last time we went we had a yacht, we flew people out there and were taking people out for meals. It cost just under £400,000 and we’ve not seen any direct investment as a result – well, none that I’m aware of, anyway.”

He argues the London-based “embassy” offers better value for money and a greater chance of achieving the practical goal of bringing people up to Liverpool.

“It will pay more dividends in the long run and we’ve had private sector sponsors backing it,” he said.

The city’s biggest regeneration prospect is undoubtedly Peel’s 17ha, £5.5bn Liverpool Waters scheme, for which an outline planning application was submitted before Christmas and a decision is expected to be reached by the end of May. Peel’s vision involves developing a over a 15-25 year period.

Much of Anderson’s time in Shanghai was spent promoting the scheme to potential investors, alongside Wirral Council leader Jeff Green who was there to promote Peel’s £4.5bn sister scheme, Wirral Waters.

Anderson likened the scheme to the North’s opportunity to create its own Canary Wharf.

“Peel have invested so much into it. With respect to Jeff, Liverpool is Liverpool and that site is a better opportunity. There’s no shortage of people interested in it.”

Derwent Holdings – the Isle of Man-based property company owned by Kwik Save founder Albert Gubay – should also begin work shortly on a £200m redevelopment of the Edge Lane retail park which will take in neighbouring bits of land to form 890,000 sq ft of commercial, retail and leisure uses, 1,000 car parking spaces and a new park.
“We’re looking at a whole regeneration proposal for both the East and West side of Edge Lane,” said Anderson, adding that the scheme should generate around 2,000 jobs.

Developer Merepark is also underway with its £350m Central Village plan, which will transform the area around Liverpool Central station and stimulate the city’s night-time economy with new cinemas, live music and a casino, as well as hotels, offices and bars.

Anderson also pointed to Stonebridge Cross – the site of the former Gillmoss housing estate which has faced several years of delays. The council appointed Drivers Jonas Deloitte to bring forward the scheme last year, and a revised masterplan has been submitted that includes commercial and residential elements.

Anderson said that the site, which is the largest piece of council-owned land in the city available for development, could also be used for sports purposes. Drivers Jonas Deloitte said the council will soon seek development partners, adding that the site is likely to brought back onto the market this year.

The cancellation of funding for the city’s £350m Building Schools for The Future project and the abandonment of the Housing Market Renewal scheme, which has left the city with scores of tenants stuck in homes earmarked for demolition, are among the challenges which the city is having to deal with, alongside £91m of council budget cuts.

Yet Anderson argued that engaging with the private sector to find solutions to these problems – such as bringing abandoned properties back into use – was better than “manning the barricades”.

“We’ve created a can-do culture here,” he said, which has extended to a shake-up of the city’s planning department and the replacement of many officers.

“No longer will we say ‘You can’t do that’. Now we’ll say, ‘You can’t do that, but you can do this’.

“We’re taking a commonsense approach when it comes to proposals. If you go to Shanghai and London, you have some great old buildings that go alongside modern ones.

“I personally think we have to be bold. Our forefathers where when they were building the  Three Graces 100 years ago and that’s now a World Heritage site.”

Rob Woods, associate director in the Capital Markets team at CB Richard Ellis North West, said that although Liverpool faced some challenges from public sector cuts “there are and will continue to be opportunities within the private sector”.

He said the recruitment of Leahy to the LEP board was a plus, as he is “a well-known and respected figure with excellent business acumen, who is likely to have a significant influence on driving Liverpool’s development in the coming months”.