Fourteen ‘brownfield’ sites have been identified for nearly 3,000 new homes in the Liverpool City Region as part of the Metro Mayor’s plan to tackle the housing crisis.

Steve Rotheram at the Moss Nook brownfield site in St Helens

At its meeting on Friday 26 November, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will be asked to approve the use of the remaining £36 million from its £45 million Brownfield Land Fund to support the building schemes.

Since the £45m funding was announced in July 2020, the Combined Authority has already invested £11m in seven projects across the Liverpool City Region, which will deliver 886 homes.

The latest round of funding is split between eight private sector-led projects, identified following an over-subscribed open call during the summer, expected to deliver around 1,400 homes, and six local authority-led projects, expected to deliver a further 1,200 homes.

In planning terms, any land that has been previously developed is classed as brownfield.  In the Liverpool City Region, much of this land is derelict and formerly industrial so must be cleaned up before it can be redeveloped.

The Combined Authority investment will be used for site remediation and other measures required to make sites ready for development.

Speaking about the plans, Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:

“For too many people across our region, the chance to own a home of their own remains out of reach. To tackle the housing crisis and help more people realise their home ownership ambitions, we need to take serious action to get more homes built across our region.

“When I was elected, I promised to prioritise brownfield sites for house building and have been working hard to make that a reality.

“Last year we spent £11m to help deliver almost 900 homes on brownfield sites. We are now looking at another £36m that should take the total to almost 4,000 new homes for people across our region.”

In total, 700 brownfield sites have been identified across the six local authorities of the Liverpool City Region. The updated brownfield register identifies 1,813 acres of brownfield sites which could provide space for more than 42,000 homes, if remediated.

Councillor Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Framework, said:

“We have ambitious plans to ensure that we tackle the housing shortage and deliver a great choice of high-quality homes, right across the city region.  Building on brownfield sites will be vital to that process – after all there are around 800 of them with enough space to build 42,000 homes.  The developments put forward in this proposal to the Combined Authority are a really good 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.”