Seven housing projects across Liverpool city region, totalling 671 new homes, will share £8.9m from the £60m Brownfield Land Fund. Tony McDonough reports

Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has released a further £8.9m from his Brownfield Land Fund to support 671 new homes across the city region.

Seven projects will benefit from the funding with sites at the Alder Hey Hospital, Bootle High School included on the list. The Brownfield Land Fund is a £60m fund that has previously helped develop land for thousands of new homes.

Mr Rotheram said: “I am determined to turbocharge a new generation of housebuilding – including a return, at long last, to council housing in the region in addition to funding the aspirational homes that are so desperately needed.”

These seven latest projects are:

• The former Ibstock Brickworks site on Chester Lane, St Helens, which received £2,95m to enable 243 new homes.
• Springfield Gardens development of 98 new homes on the former Alder Hey hospital site in Knotty Ash, Liverpool, which was allocated £1,47m
• Plus Dane Housing’s scheme to create 104 homes on the site of the old Johnsons Building, Bootle, which was awarded almost £1.3m.
• Halton Housing’s project to build 66 homes on a derelict site on the High Street, Runcorn, which was awarded £1.12m.
• Onward Homes’ development of 67 affordable rented homes on the site of a former bus depot on Hawthorne Road, Sefton, which was awarded just over £1m.
• Sandway Homes’ development of the former Bootle High School site leading to the construction of 53 new homes, which was allocated £795,000 to address viability constraints
• Torus Housing’s project to build 40 homes, completing the stalled Quadrant apartment development in Hoylake, which received a grant of £299,000.

Since the original Brownfield Land Fund was announced in July 2020, the Combined Authority has already agreed plans to invest £41.5m in 29 projects across Liverpool city region, which will deliver 3,371 homes.

In planning terms, any land that has been previously developed is classed as brownfield. In the Liverpool City Region, much of this land is derelict and formerly industrial so must be cleaned up before it can be redeveloped.

The Combined Authority investment will be used for site remediation and other measures required to make the land ready for development. In total, 700 brownfield sites have been identified across the six local authorities.

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“I want everyone in our area to have access to high-quality, affordable homes. Yet for too many ordinary people, home ownership feels out of reach, and affordable rents are in increasingly short supply,” added Mr Rotheram.

Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, also said: “We are working hard to tackle the housing shortage and ensure that people right across our area have a great choice of high-quality homes.

“Building on brownfield sites is key to making that happen – there are around 700 of them with enough space to build 42,000 homes.”