A former economic advisor to ex-PM Gordon Brown and a BAFTA-winning TV producer are among a new team of experts looking to ‘supercharge’ a new era of economic growth in Liverpool. Tony McDonough reports
A team of national and international experts has been put together to help drive a new era of economic growth in Liverpool.
Chaired by Patrick Nolan, former vice chairman, HSBC Global Banking & Markets, Imagine Liverpool will include 13 board members whose brief it is to help accelerate development within the city over the next decade.
Board members include former economic adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Lord Stewart Wood, and Liverpool-born, BAFTA-winning TV producer Jimmy Mulville.
This new body has been endorsed by Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner. They will act as ambassadors and advisors for Liverpool, with the aim of helping to give confidence to investors, landowners, developers and occupiers.
They gathered for their first meeting in Liverpool on Monday before a delegation headed to the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum to promote investment opportunities in the city.
A recruitment drive for the board was announced last autumn with a brief to “provide strategic leadership to drive forward regeneration opportunities, accelerate development, and enhance the quality of life for the city’s residents”.
Liverpool City Council leader Liam Robinson said: “The establishment of Imagine Liverpool is a major milestone in our ongoing regeneration story and a new chapter for the city.
“Liverpool is on the cusp of delivering some truly transformational schemes, especially in the docks and north of the city, and we need to ensure the opportunities arising from the momentum we’re creating is fully maximised.”
In recent years there have been complaints from investors and developers that Liverpool has been too resistant to transformational property schemes, particularly when it comes to high-rise development.
However, the city now insists that it is open for business. An acid test of this new commitment will come in the shape of a £1bn development planned close to Liverpool waterfront and bankrolled by Home Bargains billionaire Tom Morris.
Mr Morris has teamed up with Hugh Frost whose company Beetham built Beetham Tower and West Tower in Old Hall Street. Located on what is currently the King Edward Industrial Estate next to Princes Dock, this new scheme is on a whole new scale.
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In February LBN revealed the partners planned to build a cluster of 10 residential skyscrapers, comprising 1,200 apartments, with the tallest tower exceeding 60 storeys – at least 20 storeys higher than the city has ever seen – as well as a five-star hotel.
“It’s ambitious and, to a certain degree, a leap of faith, because the market for the sort of thing we’re hoping to do isn’t there yet,” Hugh Frost said in an interview with Place North West last week.
The board will also input into the New Town bid which aims to create an urban extension in north Liverpool. Developed jointly with Sefton Council, this long-term vision to revitalise this key part of the city includes plans to develop 10,000 new homes.