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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. Then, in March 2022 it was awarded an additional £15m which will enable a further 1,000 homes to be built on previously developed sites in the Liverpool City Region.
This results in a £60 million total of funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. 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 eight projects across the Liverpool City Region with more than £19m invested to deliver 1,408 homes.
The Combined Authority has now agreed its strategy for investing the remaining £41m, which will be divided among the following:
- Local Authority-led land acquisitions
- Local Authority-led projects
- Private sector development
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.
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.
The seven sites already supported through the Brownfield Land Fund are:
- Moss Nook, St Helens
- Buckley Hill, Sefton
- Foundry Lane, Halton
- Halton Court, Halton
- Paddington Village, Liverpool
- House of Fraser Building, Wirral
- Denford Road, Liverpool
- Lightbody Street, Liverpool
Steve Rotheram, Metro 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 housebuilding and have been working hard to make that a reality.
“Last year we spent £11m to help deliver almost 900 homes on brownfield sites. Today we’ve approved another £34m that should see help take the total to almost 4,000 new homes for people across our region.”
Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram
