Liverpool City Council is set to seek a development partner to help transform a prime waterfront spot into Liverpool’s newest residential community. A report to Cabinet on Tuesday, 10 September, is recommending the Council embarks on a competitive procurement exercise to appoint a high calibre development partner to lead on creating a new neighbourhood as part of the city’s famous International Festival Gardens site, which was originally opened in May 1984. The ambition is to significantly boost the city’s housing supply with a diverse range and mix of housing types, including affordable properties, together with local amenities, creating a thriving new community in this prime south Liverpool location, which is well connected and within 10-minutes of the city centre. The scheme, which is a flagship project outlined in the city’s draft housing strategy, will connect with and enhance its natural surroundings and biodiversity and provide a high standard of desirable and multi-generational living for all. Significant remediation and enabling works were recently completed in January 2024 to enable development, and since that time a team of experts have been curating an ambitious, and deliverable development brief which will provide an essential framework to market the site. Clear objectives are outlined which state the council’s intentions to make the 28-acre site a sustainable, healthy and inclusive neighbourhood which has a strong identity and high design quality. If the report is given the green light, the initial phase of the procurement process will begin in October, with a view to securing a partner towards the middle of next year. The development brief will form the central part of a procurement process, seeking viable expressions of interest from developers with a proven, successful track record in delivering transformative schemes at pace, which are built on strong community engagement. Montagu Evans will be running the procurement process on behalf of the Council. It is expected that the contract with the successful development partner will be finalised in Autumn 2025 once thorough due diligence has been undertaken. • You can read the full Cabinet report here. THE REMEDIATION : Remediating the Festival Gardens site has been a three-year project, which began in 2021. It was a mammoth excavation programme, moving almost 450,000 cubic metres of soil and waste of which more than 95 per cent was recycled, including 100,000 cubic metres of earth being used to create the city’s newest park – the Southern Grasslands which opened in August 2023. The remediation won a national brownfield award in recognition of the complex and sustainable nature of activity which was carried out to ensure the viability of the next phase in the transformation of Festival Gardens. Additional works have also been carried out which include laying drainage and constructing a substation to provide a power supply for the future development. This 28-acre site includes a unique 8-acre area of landscaped amenity space, with the other 20 acres now primed and ready for development. The remediation was led by the Council’s principal contractor VINCI Building. The improvement works to the site that are integral to enabling this exciting development to progress were made possible through a combination of Liverpool City Council, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and Homes England grant funding. Leader of Liverpool City Council, Councillor Liam Robinson, said: “This is a major milestone moment in the evolution of the Festival Gardens site. “The appointment of a development partner will see the completion of the International Garden Festival initiative and marks the final chapter in a 40-year story of a site which originally covered 250 acres. It will also ensure that the UK’s only remaining Festival Gardens are preserved and enhanced for future generations to enjoy. “We know how well-loved this area is and want to make sure that we are doing as much as we can to ensure this prime waterfront land has the potential to be a flagship development that sets the standard for sustainable housing in the UK. “The extensive remediation work is another piece in the puzzle, and we’re now in a position to go out to the market and invite developers to share with us their viable vision which will be transformative for the area and the city as a whole. “It’s an incredibly exciting time and is the next step in making this in-demand, thriving community a reality.” Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram, said: “This is another milestone on the journey to transforming Festival Gardens into a vibrant, inclusive community that will be cherished by generations to come. This isn’t just about building units; it’s about building desirable homes, where families can put down roots, where nature and urban living coexist in harmony, and where the community spirit that defines our region can thrive. “Working with the city council we have done much of the hard graft on remediating the contaminated land, and we’re now ready to work with a partner who shares our vision to turn this prime waterfront site into a beacon of sustainable living. Together, we’ll make sure that this development is something we can all be proud of.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) Planning Committee last night approved plans for the redevelopment of the Former Royal Mail Sorting Office site, at Maidstone East, for mixed-use development which is predominantly residential. The development will include 180 apartments, 1,863 square metres of commercial and/or community space and around one acre of open green space town centre park which will be owned and managed by the Council. Cllr Stuart Jeffery, Leader of MBC said: “This redevelopment will form part of the Council’s ambitious housebuilding programme. These are very exciting times for the Council, and the town itself. We believe the project will be transformational to that area of Maidstone, bringing genuinely excellent new homes to the town centre. I am also pleased to see a large new open green space included in the design, it will play an important role in the wellbeing of the new residents and businesses.” MBC has been working on the makeup of the site for the past few years, the demolition of the various buildings is almost complete making way for the new development. Cllr Simon Wales, Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness at MBC added: “MBC will be acting as lead developer on the site and has already secured £2.1m of Brownfield Land Release Fund monies from the Department for Local Government Homes & Communities, which has helped fund some of the remedial works to prepare it for redevelopment. “Now that the planning permission is in place, the Council can approach Homes England as to the availability of Social Housing Grant monies to help fund much needed affordable housing on the site. We are also discussing the inclusion of a health facility with the local NHS” Simon continued: “The next steps are to procure a contractor for the works, and to refine and finalise the tenure mix for the project, with a view to the build getting under way in around twelve months.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals

A UNIQUE piece of research commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) reveals the huge financial strain temporary accommodation costs are placing on local authorities. Each year, an estimated £74.6 million is spent on renting temporary accommodation across Greater Manchester. The number of people living in temporary accommodation in Greater Manchester is now at an all-time high, with 5,649 households living in hostels, Bed and Breakfast and other temporary accommodation. These households include 7,679 children. Over the past four years the number of households in temporary accommodation in Greater Manchester has increased by 71% compared with 26% across England.  Today the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and the leaders of the city-region’s ten local authorities confirmed the launch of a new Housing First Unit to tackle the roots of the housing crisis by:   Housing First is part of the GMCA’s pioneering approach to delivering public services and tackling the problems that are hampering wellbeing and economic growth. It is based on the philosophy that good health, good education, and good jobs cannot come without a good, permanent home. The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said: “The £75m our councils are spending on these rents is just the tip of the iceberg. It doesn’t include the cost of finding that housing, let alone the human toll of living in such an insecure situation. “Our reliance on temporary accommodation has left thousands of families in a limbo that is blighting their life chances and damaging their health and wellbeing. Living in a hostel or B&B makes it harder to cook healthy meals, do homework, hold down a job, see friends and family or visit a doctor when you need to. “Our Housing First Unit will work to make sure that everyone in Greater Manchester has a home that is safe, secure and sustainable. Giving everyone a good, safe home would be one of the best investments the country could make and would take pressure off other public services and public finances.”   Demand for social housing in Greater Manchester outstrips supply by 260 per cent. In 2022/23, there were 13,551 social lettings in Greater Manchester – half as many as ten years ago. There were 86,595 households vying for these properties, of which 35,177 were in a priority group for social housing The Mayor and Greater Manchester’s ten council leaders also approved a plan to work together to deliver better quality and better value temporary accommodation. The cost and demand for temporary accommodation has spiralled in recent years due to a lack of social and affordable housing and the high cost of private rentals. Local authorities must abide by strict rules around how they cover these rental costs and can only recover a fraction of what they spend from central government. In Greater Manchester, councils were only able to recover 42% of the £74.6 million they spent on temporary accommodation, creating an annual net loss of £43million.   The GMCA will explore new ways of coordinating, delivering and preventing the need for temporary accommodation. It will also draw lessons from current best practice across the city-region, such as Manchester City Council, which has been able to buck the national trend, reducing the number of households in temporary accommodation and all but eradicating the use of Bed and Breakfasts. Portfolio Lead for Housing First, City Mayor of Salford Paul Dennett, said: “The spiralling cost of temporary accommodation represents an existential threat to local government. Following 14 years of previous Government-driven austerity, we’ve seen councils up and down the country going bankrupt, with temporary accommodation placing an ever-bigger burden on their budgets.     “In recent years, the lack of social and council housing has massively increased landlords’ bargaining power, leaving our residents struggling to secure a place to call home. That market pressure has also made it harder for councils to negotiate rates and secure temporary accommodation. Without urgent and radical action, annual financial losses for local authorities will just keep growing, putting further pressure on overstretched budgets, continuing to push councils into bankruptcy. “There is no quick fix for this housing crisis which has been 40 years in the making. The Right to Buy has led to chronic under-supply of social and council housing. We’ve lost 24,000 homes to Right to Buy in the past two decades and not enough new homes are being built to replace them. Rising land values, an inability currently to capture land-value uplift in the National Planning Policy Framework, ongoing land assembly challenges, and skills and experiences shortages are also making it harder to build truly affordable housing.   “We welcome the progress the new Government is making, including the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will end no fault eviction and recent changes to the Compulsory Purchase Regulations to tackle issues with ‘hope value’ and the implications for the viability of developments. “Through regional collaboration and with the support of central Government, we can work to deliver Greater Manchester’s vision of Housing First and collectively work to mitigate the worst effects of the housing crisis. “By taking a collaborative, co-ordinated and evidence-based approach, we hope to realise economies of scale and deliver temporary accommodation that is better value for money, while reducing the need for temporary accommodation by significantly increasing & accelerating the supply of Truly Affordable Net Zero homes. “A good home is the cornerstone of a healthy, happy life for our residents. By working together, we can improve the standard of temporary accommodation and make sure they are consistent across Greater Manchester.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals