The Liverpool Land Development Company has taken a long time to get moving, but most commentators are optimistic about its future. By David Thame
It’s been a miserable 12 months for telecoms giant Marconi – as its 900 workers at Liverpool’s Edge Lane factory know only too well. Subsidiary Jabil Circuits announced in March that it would close.
Despite the company’s hopes that a £200m-plus deal with Ericsson could save the plant, prospects at the east Liverpool site appear poor.
The North West Development Agency has launched a rescue plan that involves buying the land for redevelopment. Adding to the gloom, Marconi also plans to close its plant at Speke, south Liverpool, in mid-2004.
Both areas are among the most vulnerable in a city whose economic health is variable at the best of times. And that is where the Liverpool Land Development Co comes in.
In February 2001, city council leaders and the North West Development Agency revealed that they were looking at plans to create a regeneration body for Liverpool.
It would take charge of much of the city’s Objective 1 European Union regeneration outside the city centre, which would remain under the control of the city’s urban regeneration company, Liverpool Vision.
Kirkby Gilmoss – the north Liverpool area close to the port and Atlantic Avenue – and the city’s eastern approaches – Edge Lane and the A580 East Lancashire Road – were two of the areas being considered for inclusion in the city-wide body, the Liverpool Land Development Co.
The idea was to build on the successful Speke Garston Development Co, a partnership body set up by NWDA, English Partnerships and the city council, whose remit is due to expire in 2003.
Speke Garston, under the leadership of chief executive Bob Lane, has been responsible for regeneration in south Liverpool. Its flagships are the 100-acre (40.5ha) Estuary Commerce Park and the nearby Boulevard Industry Park.
However, the LLDC idea has been slow to mature. A launch date of 1 April 2001 was postponed amid reports that neither English Partnerships nor the NWDA were prepared to offer the same generous funding as had been granted to Speke Garston.
In November 2001 it emerged that LLDC would begin work in April 2002. When that failed to happen, insiders claimed that the new body would be up and running by April 2003 – and that no earlier date had ever been seriously entertained.
Resignation a blow
Yet another blow was delivered in April, when Lane -Êwho had been expected to become chief executive of the new body – announced he was resigning to take up a post in Corby. Although all concerned agree his decision was no reflection on the LLDC, it was not the kind of start the new agency needed.
There has been good news, however, not least the allocation of £33.5m of EU funding to the fledgling agency’s priority areas.
Atlantic Gateway, north of the city, will receive £10m, the Edge Lane area and Eastern corridor will get £6.6m, Kirkby/Gillmoss another £8.6m, and Speke £8.3m.
The company will be the focus of high expectations. “It’s going to have the same impact that Speke Garston has had in transforming areas on the outskirts of the city,” says Lane. “It’s going to build on the kind of approach we built up at Speke Garston, which means working with local people, providing the right kind of sites and premises, and supporting its activities with major infrastructure projects.”
For Aidan Manley, the NWDA’s area manager for Merseyside, the confusion of start dates was unnecessary. “The original start dates were massively ambitious. We need to get clearance from Whitehall and the partner agencies, and put the legal structure in place, and that was always going to take more than a few months,” he says.
Funding problems are also being resolved, he says. “It will be funded similarly to Speke Garston, except that where Speke Garston had a pot of money of its own, which it drew down each year according to its business plan, the LLDC will submit its business plan to the partners, each of whom will then draw down funds from their own budgets. That isn’t much different,” he says.
Some observers, however, disagree, and believe that the LLDC will not have the kind of autonomy Speke Garston Development Co enjoyed.
Manley is keen to allay fears that the new body will merely add another layer to the proliferating jungle of regeneration bodies active in Merseyside. “All the partner organisations will be on the board of the new LLDC, so co-ordination shouldn’t be a problem,” he says.
With its wide remit, some in Merseyside have voiced concerns that the LLDC will spread itself too thinly. “Can it really achieve all that is promised?” asks one perplexed observer.
Fears of overloading
But Lane says there is no serious risk that the LLDC will become overloaded with worthy projects – and, as a result, fail to achieve any of its aims.
“The sequencing of projects is such that there won’t be more than one major scheme under way at the same time. For instance, work is already closer to completion at Kirkby/Gilmoss than it is at the A580 East Lancs Road/Eastern approaches around Edge Lane, and there are others behind that,” he explains.
The Merseyside property industry hopes Lane’s confidence isn’t misplaced. Speculative development is perceived to be the key to winning occupiers – a suggestion belatedly acknowledged at Speke Garston, where the development company, under pressure from Lane, has finally agreed to initiate speculative building.
According to Jill Brown at GVA Grimley, letting agent at the city’s Princes Dock office scheme, where good results followed bold speculative building: “The Atlantic Gateway and Eastside areas of the city have every chance of success, but the key is having the land and the buildings ready to go. They cannot rely on prelets, as we proved at Princes Dock. Occupiers need to see developer confidence.”
Plans are already well advanced for the Edge Lane area and the northern Atlantic Gateway investment zone. Advertisements for a new chief executive – to replace Lane – are due to appear in the papers any day.
The Speke Garston Development Co is working on preliminary masterplans. The final nod of approval from Whitehall is expected by the autumn.
LLDC has been a long time coming. There are plenty in Merseyside who hope it will have been worth the wait.
Work in progress
Looking east, north and south
Work is already under way on the early stages of the Liverpool Land Development Co’s target areas. The Edge Lane area, east of the city, is Liverpool’s gateway.
Despite the travails at Marconi, the area already boasts the successful Wavertree Technology Park and, thanks to a recent planning inquiry, the park is set to grow.
Last month, Co-operative Retail Services lost its battle to have the 15-acre (6ha) former bus depot at Edge Lane zoned for retail use.
A planning inspector agreed with North West Development Agency and the city council that the site should be allocated for an extension to the Wavertree Park.
The inspector also wanted the former Littlewoods headquarters included in the park extension, which promises to give Wavertree the high-profile entrance it has always lacked.
Plans have also been unveiled for residential, leisure and industrial development in Liverpool’s 300-acre (121ha) Atlantic Gateway investment area.
Liverpool council and Sefton council have appointed a team of consultants to masterplan the area north of the city centre, from Stanley Dock through Bootle to Maghull. It is expected to report in June.
Much of the land is owned by Mersey Docks & Harbour Board, with English Partnerships also controlling important parcels.
The North West Development Agency and the EU are funding the masterplanning team, headed by Cheshire-based planning consultant Taylor Young and including Jones Lang LaSalle.
Back at Speke in the south of the city, plans have been announced for a £40m regeneration at Speke Park. Morrisons will anchor a mixed development to include community facilities, shops and residential space.
