Businesses throughout the City Region are being targeted to get behind the High Speed Rail – Linking Liverpool campaign.

A team of campaign staff will be touring business parks and industrial estates to gather support for the plan to bring High Speed Rail into Liverpool city centre.

Cllr Phil Davies, Chair of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority said:

“The benefits of High Speed Rail will be felt throughout the whole City Region, so we are encouraging all businesses to find out more about HSR, and to sign up to our campaign. We have a target of 1,000 business pledges before the end of the year,”

So far – in just two weeks since a launch event for the business campaign – more than 100 organisations have signed up, with 20,000 members of the public adding their support.

Peter Scott, Managing Director of Printfine on the King Edward Industrial Estate in Liverpool, signed up and said:

 “It’s increasingly frustrating that the city region is left out on a limb.

“This is a great city, one of the fastest-growing economies in the country: why shouldn’t we have the best transport links?”

Under current plans, High Speed Rail is scheduled to bypass the City Region – but public and private sector leaders believe that bringing it into Liverpool will benefit the rest of the North and the UK.

Robert Hough, Chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said:

“Many businesses here already recognise the benefits a High Speed link would bring, and we want to demonstrate to Government that there is an overwhelming, evidence-based case for such a link.”

Research shows that the region would benefit from:

• An overall £8.3bn boost to the Liverpool City Region economy.
• 14,000 new jobs.
• An additional £30m a year in business rates, meaning more money for local services.
• 20,000 more people looking to make the Liverpool City Region their home.
• 723,000 additional visitors, spending around £87m, supporting around 1,740 additional jobs and £66m in annual GVA.

Businesses and members of the public can pledge their support at www.highspeedrailliverpool.org

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