• Five housing developments in line for Brownfield Land Fund support

• £2.8m to help create 113 new homes in total

• More than 4,500 new homes are already being built on derelict sites thanks to £60m Brownfield Land Fund

A derelict former police station, church, school and pub are amongst five sites in line to receive brownfield land funding that would help create more than 100 homes.

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will be asked to approve the addition of the projects to its funding pipeline at its 12 December meeting.

Liverpool City Region leaders pictured at Finch Gardens, the first Brownfield Land Fund project to complete. (l to r) Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Spatial Planning, Tracy Gordon, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Lead Officer – Housing Partnerships, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Sharon Morris, Riverside Head of Sales, Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council.

In total, the five projects have requested £2.8m from the Brownfield Land Fund to create 113 new homes on previously developed sites.

This extension builds on the City Region’s successful delivery of the £60m Brownfield Land Fund, that is creating more than 4,500 new homes on derelict sites across the Liverpool City Region.

Cllr Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration, said:

“We are working hard to tackle the housing crisis and ensure that people right across our area have a great choice of high-quality homes. Building on brownfield sites is key to making that happen – there are around 700 of them with enough space to build 42,000 homes.

“These developments, which could be added to our project pipeline, are a great mix of schemes offering a wide range of different housing types.  We need to ensure that, across our city region, we are building homes to suit everybody.”

The five developments proposed for inclusion in the project pipeline are:

• Sentinel Way, Aintree (Sefton): Your Housing Group (YHG) is seeking a £1,350,000 grant for a 54-unit brownfield scheme next to the Merseyrail line.
• Prescot Police Station (Knowsley): Prima Group is requesting a grant of £325,000 to deliver 13 shared ownership units consisting of seven flats in the former police station alongside the construction of two bungalows and four houses on the site of the former car park.
• Mather Avenue (Liverpool): an 11-unit scheme to be constructed on derelict land, formerly the site of St Bernadette’s Church that was demolished in 2018. Regenda Group is requesting a grant of £275,000, to deliver specialist units which will provide accommodation for adults with additional needs. The former church site is owned by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which has agreed to offer a 125-year lease for the land to be developed as supported housing, specifically for people with learning disabilities.
• St. Monica’s Church, Stewart Avenue, Bootle (Sefton): a 10-unit scheme on a cleared site adjacent to the St Monica’s Church Parish Centre in Bootle. Crosby Housing is requesting £200,000 to deliver a 100% social rent development.
• Stork Inn, Billinge, St Helens: Torus 62 Ltd is seeking a grant of £650,000 to convert the old pub and build new properties on the adjacent brownfield site, creating 26-unit 100% affordable scheme.

The Liverpool City Region received £59.5m in Government funding to support the creation of new homes on previously developed brownfield sites. The target of enabling construction of 3,970 new homes has been smashed with 4,521 homes built.

An interim one-year BLF Extension programme has been approved by Government with further funding of £13,895,370 for the Liverpool City Region before its successor, the National Housing Development programme, is launched in 2026.

Earlier this year, the Combined Authority approved a list of housing development projects to potentially receive the BLF Extension programme funding, and delegated authority to the Executive Director – Investment and Delivery to approve the Full Business Cases for these projects, as they come forward. These further five priority projects have been identified by the Combined Authority’s Housing team, with the collaboration and support of the relevant Local Authorities, and the Combined Authority will be asked to add them to the project pipeline.