Councillors to decide on Granby Four Streets regen
A PLAN to complete the regeneration of Liverpool’s Granby Four Streets is being put forward.
Work is already well underway on 77 of the Victorian terraced properties in the area thanks to a variety of schemes driven by the City Council, housing associations and the local community.
The council’s Cabinet on Friday (October 30) will be asked to approve an offer to the owners of 34 properties to carry out improvements to the frontages of their homes.
Also in the pipeline is the refurbishment of homes on Ducie Street, while the remaining five houses that need work on Cairns Street are set to be transferred to a housing co-operative.
Work is already taking place on Cairns Street and Jermyn Street where 38 properties are being refurbished by Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH); 10 have been handed over to the Granby Community Land Trust; five are part of the council’s innovative Homes for a Pound scheme. In addition, 24 properties on Beaconsfield Street are currently being improved by Plus Dane.
Cllr Frank Hont, Cabinet member for housing, said: “Anyone who has been down to the Four Streets recently knows that it is a hive of construction activity with a huge amount of work going on, and the area is literally being reborn.
“The turnaround in the area in a short space of time has been little short of remarkable, and huge thanks must go to our partners and the local community for working with us positively to come up with a new plan after many years of false dawns.
“We are now at the stage where we want to bring the remaining homes in the neighbourhood up to scratch, which is why we are proposing offering financial assistance to owners to carry out improvement works on things like brickwork, windows and roofing.
“We are hoping it will encourage the owners of the small number of empty privately owned properties to bring them back into use.
“We are also working up a plan to improve the remaining vacant properties on Ducie Street to complete the much-needed regeneration of this area of the city.
“It is fantastic that this area is attracting so much positive international attention, and we are immensely proud that the Community Land Trust’s project on Cairns Street has not just been nominated for this year’s Turner Prize but is also in the running for Street of the Year at the Urbanism Awards.”
The cost of the work on the frontages is coming from a mix of Empty Homes funding and the city council. If owners sell the property within 10 years they have to repay the full cost of the work.
