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Liverpool City Region heads to the UK’s largest real estate event next week on a mission to build on record investor interest at MIPIM.
The city region’s public and private sector delegation travel to UKREiiF armed with £11bn of investment opportunities, a new £2bn LCR Investment Fund, a new Investment Strategy, a 10-year Growth Plan, an emerging Mayoral Development Corporation and a clear message: ‘now’s the time to invest’.
New partners have swelled the Liverpool City Region’s UKREiiF delegation into the largest ever with 130 delegates from more than 40 major businesses and organisations – spurred on by momentum gained at MIPIM.
The City Region’s presence at the world’s largest real estate event in March has led to ‘exciting conversations’ with potential investors.
And the City Region’s global profile has continued to build since MIPIM with Mayor Steve Rotheram last week signing a landmark AI agreement and Joint Declaration of Intent with innovative German city Hamburg to develop closer ties and cooperation. Further overseas visits and agreements are in the pipeline.
The UKREiiF delegation will deliver a compelling catalogue of reasons to invest in the city region to an audience including the government and top investors.
Having unveiled the Liverpool City Region’s largest ever Investment Fund at MIPIM, the delegation will reveal details of the first tranche of investments which are set to unlock plans for high-grade offices, labs and advanced manufacturing space, supporting thousands of jobs.
A new LCR Investment Strategy will also be launched, to ensure funding decisions are aligned with the Local Growth Plan – the region’s 10-year blueprint to add £10bn to the economy, create tens of thousands of jobs, deliver tens of thousands of homes and a transport system fit for the future.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said:
“If we want to unlock the next phase of growth in the Liverpool City Region, create high-quality jobs and deliver the homes and infrastructure our communities need, then we have to be engaging directly with investors and development partners.
“UKREiiF is a major opportunity to showcase the scale of ambition and opportunity across our region to UK investors who are looking for places with a clear vision, strong leadership and projects ready to move forward. The public sector can never deliver this in isolation.
“We’re bringing a portfolio of billions of pounds of investible opportunities – from the transformation of Liverpool’s North Docks through a new Mayoral Development Corporation, to regeneration around Central Station, Health Innovation Liverpool and the expansion of our life sciences and innovation economy across the whole city region.
“But, for me, growth only matters if local people feel the benefits. That means better jobs, stronger neighbourhoods and greater opportunity for our residents. It’s why we’ve continued to back major infrastructure investment ourselves – from our publicly owned trains and ferries, to taking back control of our bus network, and our publicly owned full-fibre LCR Connect network.
“We’re heading to Leeds with a plan to build long-term partnerships with investors who share that vision – partners who want to help shape sustainable growth, deliver lasting value and play a role in the future success of the Liverpool City Region.”
Superbly connected by road, rail, sea and air and a new 350km ultra-fast digital network, Liverpool City Region is a place with renewed confidence where world leaders meet and where global events take place, that’s forging partnerships with innovative cities in Asia, Europe and North America.
It’s also a place that’s gaining momentum as it attracts high-profile investments such as US tech giant Kyndryl, which is set to create up to 1,000 jobs at its new Liverpool city centre hub.
Liverpool was recently named the UK’s hottest property destination – bucking a sluggish national trend with an 8.5% rise in house prices driven by affordability and strong rental demand.
And with the city region’s world-famous culture, heritage, sport and world-leading innovation fuelled by its world-class universities, it’s also benefiting from one of the UK’s highest student retention rates of just over 76% – adding to its growing talent pool.
Underpinning future ambitions is the Liverpool City Region Growth Plan: a bold and ambitious decade-long blueprint to create tens of thousands of jobs and increase the city region’s £43.3bn economy by £10bn.
This will be achieved by accelerating growth in the city region’s globally recognised strengths in advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, digital and technology and creative industries – supported by maritime, financial, professional and business services and a thriving visitor economy.
Developed and delivered by the Combined Authority in partnership with government, industry, academia and communities, the Growth Plan highlights the city region’s UK-leading collaborations between the public sector, industry and universities that are fuelling world-leading innovation in life sciences, materials and AI.
A new £500m rail fleet connects a labour market of 2.5 million people and over £2bn more is set to be invested in public transport, while £700m Government funding for affordable housebuilding underpins a new £2bn pipeline to build 64,000 new homes.
Already home to Europe’s largest biomanufacturing cluster and the UK’s highest concentration of infection R&D, the city region’s thriving life sciences sector is receiving up to £800m of public and private investment through its Innovation Zone programme that will deliver new state-of-the-art facilities and create thousands of jobs.
Developments set to transform the sector include £125m plans to develop Maghull Health Park and projects to expand high-tech facilities at two nationally significant innovation campuses – Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sci-Tech Daresbury.
Further flagship investment opportunities include £5bn plans to redevelop Liverpool’s Central Station encompassing large parts of the city centre, and £550m plans to develop Health Innovation Liverpool (HIL).
The LCR Freeport is a designated area covering 45km, where a range of economic incentives are available, covering customs, business rates, planning, regeneration, innovation, trade and investment support. Local councils are able to retain 100% of business rates growth generated by the freeport tax sites – located in Birkenhead, St Helens and Widnes.
Centred on a mix of infrastructure including the deep-water container terminal at the Port of Liverpool – the UK’s biggest western facing port, which already handles 45% of trade from the US – the Freeport is the key coastal access point to the UK’s largest concentration of manufacturing.
Home to world-leading innovation in infection control, materials science and AI solutions, with emerging strengths in maritime and net-zero, the city region has £1bn of live innovation projects and a £2bn innovation pipeline, as it plots a course to its goal of investing 5% GVA in R&D by 2030.
And with LCR Connect, a new 350km full-fibre network making the region one of the UK’s most digitally connected, combined with world-class supercomputing assets including the £210m Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation, the region is well-placed to be a global leader in harnessing AI as a force for good – improving society, while driving economic growth.
Colin Sinclair pictured in Liverpool City centre.
Images by Gareth Jones
Colin Sinclair, Chief Executive of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sciontec Developments Limited and Chair of the Invest Liverpool City Region (ILCR) Partnership Taskforce, said:
“Extraordinary things are happening in the Liverpool City Region right now and we are heading to UKREiiF to shout from the rooftops that there has never been a better time to invest here.
“With £11bn of investment opportunities, a new £2bn LCR Investment Fund, a new Investment Strategy, a 10-year Growth Plan, and an emerging Mayoral Development Corporation, we have a compelling story to tell and I can wait to get to Leeds to start telling it.”
