Powerful coalition of Liverpool city region housing associations stand ready to share expertise as Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram prepares to spend £700m on new affordable and social housing. Tony McDonough reports
Housing associations in Liverpool city region are ready to share their huge expertise as Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram decides how to invest a £700m Government cash injection.
In November, the Combined Authority secured funding to support its plans to build 16,000 new social and affordable homes over the next decade. It will also receive £13.8m to enable 555 new homes to be built on Brownfield sites.
An affordable home is one where the rent and sale price is no more than 80% of local market rates. For social housing, the discount can be as much as 50%.
Following the announcement, Liverpool City Region Housing Associations (LCRHA), a coalition of 23 housing associations, said it was “fantastic news” for the city region.
Now LCRHA chair Claire Griffiths has told LBN its members were ideally placed to help the Mayor turn his ambitious targets into reality.
She also said housing associations would step up their programme of retrofitting existing homes with measures to slash tenants’ energy bills in 2026.
“In the past 12 months, the shift in emphasis has been really positive, with ‘build, build, build’ now the dominant narrative,” said Claire. “We need new homes across the UK and particularly here in the city region, so the news of £700m for our area was very welcome.
“This is a real signal for a change of pace. However, if we are to embark on a major push to build new homes, we need to do it right. This isn’t just about bricks and mortar – this is about placemaking, about communities and about addressing fuel poverty.
According to Claire, housing associations across the city region have demonstrated that affordable and social housing does not have to mean a compromise on quality or on levels of thermal efficiency.
“In 2026, we will be looking to work closely with the Combined Authority and provide our expertise on placemaking and creating new communities,” she added. “We understand the importance of building good quality homes with measures that help keep energy bills low.”
LCRHA members are working to retrofit and future-proof their existing housing stock, with measures such as solar panels, heat pumps, new windows and doors and better insulation to tackle fuel poverty.
They have been backed by funding from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to raise the energy efficiency rating of thousands of homes across the region.
According to Claire, chief executive of Liverpool-based Cobalt Housing who became chair of the organisation this year, LCHRA members take a holistic approach that goes far beyond just maintaining and building homes.
In August, LBN revealed that LCHRA members created £155m of social value across the six boroughs of the city region in the 2024/25 financial year alone.
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This included £76m in cost-of-living support and £21.5 in employment and training, along with wellbeing activities, youth projects, digital inclusion, environmental clean-up, community groups and decarbonisation.
“Placemaking isn’t just about investing in the fabric of houses, or on public realm, or into local services, as crucial as they are,” explained Claire. “It is also about investing in the people who live in these communities.”