Quality housing for all
We want to ensure that we are making the most of everything that our City Region has to offer, from the vibrant city centre, to the scenic surrounding areas. It is impossible to overstate the importance of the quality of the homes we live in for our wellbeing and quality of life. We have many attractive neighbourhoods with a high quality housing offer. But we recognise that we also have a number of neighbourhoods with a lack of housing quality and choice. We also recognise that too many of our citizens have difficulty accessing homes that they need.
We want to ensure that our homes are well designed, are energy efficient and can meet a wide range of housing needs, including those of our more vulnerable groups. We have already appointed a Liverpool City Region Design Champion, to kick start a conversation about the importance of design throughout the city region – making it one of the best places to live in the world. But this isn’t just about new homes, we need to make sure the homes already built are made as energy efficient as possible and can make a contribution to improving the City Region’s housing offer.
We are working with our partners in our local authorities, housing associations, developers and our communities to ensure that the City Region’s housing offer supports our economic growth aspirations (including recovering from the Coronavirus pandemic); that our housing is of good quality – whether rented or owned; and that the housing needs of our more vulnerable residents are met.
Brownfield Land Fund
In July 2020, the Liverpool City Region was allocated £45m from the Government’s Brownfield Land Fund to deliver previously-developed, or brownfield, land suitable for at least 3,000 and preferably 4,000 homes. The money will be used for site remediation and other measures required to make sites ready for development. Since then, the Combined Authority has supported seven projects across the Liverpool City Region with more than £11m invested to deliver 886 homes.
Solar Together
Solar Together Liverpool City Region is a new scheme offering high-quality solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, and battery storage. Solar panels will help residents save on energy bills and be less reliant on energy suppliers, and even have the potential to earn money by exporting unused solar power generated to the grid.
Solar Together is a group-buying scheme which brings households together to get high-quality solar panels at a competitive price, supporting and informing those participating in the scheme at each stage.
Housing Energy Efficiency
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has secured £28.5m to deliver the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Sustainable Warmth Fund Programme, following on from the £13.1m from the Green Homes Grant LAD2 scheme to pay for work to reduce energy bills and make homes across the Liverpool City Region warmer, whilst reducing environmental impact. The £28.5m will be split across the City Region’s six local authorities
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has secured £11.1m as part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, which aims to tackle fuel poverty and boost energy efficiency in social housing stock across the Liverpool City Region. The Combined Authority will work with nine local Housing Associations to install retrofit measures in social housing to reduce energy bills, reduce carbon emissions and make homes warmer.
The £11.1m will be split across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral local authorities, and assist the Housing Associations to pay for work to be carried out on around
1250 social housing properties by the end of 2023. The Housing Associations have carefully selected the properties which will be targeted, to ensure that the measures are installed where most needed and most beneficial. Eligible homes must have an EPC rating of D, E, F or G.
Social Housing Decarbonisation Wave 2 is expected to commence in the next year, and future waves should ensure that the social housing stock in the Liverpool City Region achieves the target to attain EPC Band C by 2035 and contribute to the Liverpool City Region’s Net Zero Carbon Target of 2040.
Brownfield First
A brownfield site is identified as a piece of land which has previously had some industrial or commercial use. For example, they may have previously been used as factory buildings which are no longer in use. Prioritising building new homes on sites like this, allows us to maintain as many of our existing green spaces as possible, repurposing the land already available to us and also support existing communities where brownfield land is often situated.
To help identify these sustainable urban housing sites we have established the Liverpool City Region Brownfield Land Register – on which we currently have around 800 sites across the City Region, which could accommodate in excess of 42,000 new homes. This work is supporting our discussions with Homes England to secure additional funding to build even more high-quality, sustainable homes.
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More policy information
If you would like to learn more about our housing and spatial planning policy or are looking for guidance and procedures to get involved with our housing and spatial planning schemes then please visit our policy documents page. Our policy documents offer detailed information on the various policies.
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