As Homes England pledges to invest £55m in Liverpool Waters, developer Romal Capital slams site owner Peel for charging sky-high costs for connecting power to its £100m scheme. Tony McDonough reports
Developer Romal Capital says Peel is risking deterring investors at Liverpool Waters for what it says are unacceptably high costs for connecting utilities.
Amid the announcement on Monday that Government agency Homes England is pledging to invest £55m into infrastructure to support the development of Central Docks at Liverpool Waters, Romal is calling for “careful scrutiny” of how the money will be spent.
Romal has already built two apartment blocks at Liverpool Waters – Quay Central and Park Central – totalling 237 apartments. Now it is in the process of building a further three blocks at West Waterloo Dock, adding another 330 homes.
However managing director Greg Malouf says site sales to developers must be monitored to ensure the disbursement of the publicly-funded cost of connections to utilities follows the principle of “fairness and proportionality”.
He explained: “It’s very encouraging that Homes England is to provide this shot in the arm for Central Docks.
“We have delivered two high quality apartment blocks and are on site with the first of our next three, and we’re extremely keen to see the overall development move forward at pace.
“Our own experience of bringing utilities into the site informs our caution. Peel sought to charge us £695,000 to bring power to our next two blocks, which we felt was an unfair apportionment of the costs they would face.
“We spoke with Scottish Power, and they were able to give us access to the same quantity of power for £11,000. We’ve asked Peel for a breakdown of their costs, but none has been forthcoming.”
Greg believes cost differences could be a deterrent to other developers investing in Central Docks. He is asking the Government to provide reassurance on how they will monitor the deployment of the money and what controls will be in place.
He added that among his frustrations is that high quality public realm on Jesse Hartley Way is now having to be dug up to facilitate ducting for his West Waterloo Place scheme, at a cost of £187,000.
“This public realm was also funded for by the taxpayer, and it’s frustrating that we have not been able to utilise existing ducting,” he said.
“Our network contractor is doing a cracking job and I know they’ll do their best to reinstate the paving as-was, but needless expense like this is just the sort of thing that puts developers off. The slow progress on Central Docks is a concern.”
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Local Labour councillor Dave Hanratty, who represents Waterfront North ward, says he will “make it his mission” to ensure that the public gets value for money from its investment.
“The public has a right to expect that taxpayers’ money will be used efficiently and fairly. Value for money must be our byword,” he said.
“I will make it my mission to ensure that any public investment in infrastructure at Central Docks achieves its aim of bringing forward much-needed new housing and public open spaces without delay.”
A Peel Waters spokesperson said: “We do not comment on commercially confidential agreements with our partners and suppliers. We are totally transparent with our public sector partners regarding how funds are invested, and the allocation of resources is closely monitored.
“Over many years Peel Waters have made substantial investments in essential infrastructure to provide serviced plots for our partner developers. Some of these costs are recovered from developers that wish to use that infrastructure and electrical capacity.
“There are no charges that relate to publicly installed or owned infrastructure. Developers are free to work with other suppliers to deliver infrastructure at their own cost.”