Liverpool City Region will next week deliver a clear message to the world’s largest property event: ‘now is the time to invest’.
With £11bn of investment opportunities and a decade-long blueprint to grow the economy by £10bn, the Mayoral-led MIPIM delegation will deliver a compelling catalogue of reasons to invest in the City Region – to the world’s top investors.
They will unveil the City Region’s largest ever Investment Fund that’s set to drive economic growth, create jobs and deliver tens of thousands of homes and transport fit for the future.
More exciting details will be revealed about plans for a new Mayoral Development Corporation to supercharge regeneration across Liverpool’s North Docks between the city centre and Everton FC’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium.
And details of lucrative investor benefits from the City Region’s Investment Zone will be showcased at the three-day event in France.
Superbly connected by road, rail, sea and air and a new 350km ultra-fast digital network, Liverpool City Region is a place with renewed confidence where world leaders meet and where global events take place, that’s forging partnerships with innovative cities in Asia, Europe and North America.
It’s also a place that’s gaining momentum as it attracts high-profile investments including from US tech giant Kyndryl, which set to create up to 1,000 jobs at its new Liverpool city centre hub.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said:
“If we’re serious about creating good jobs, transforming the face of our area and building the homes our residents need, then we have to be in the room with investors.
“There’s renewed confidence and interest in our region. That’s why we’re heading to MIPIM, armed with £11 billion worth of genuine, investible opportunities – from the transformation of Liverpool’s North Docks through a new Mayoral Development Corporation, to major regeneration around Central Station, Health Innovation Liverpool and the continued growth of our life sciences and innovation campuses.
“In the Liverpool City Region, we believe growth should mean something to everyone – whether that’s better-paid jobs, thriving neighbourhoods or more opportunity for local people.
“And we’ve shown we’re prepared to put our own money on the table to make that happen, whether investing in new trains, bringing buses back under public control or backing the infrastructure businesses rely on, like our own digital connectivity LCR Connect, a publicly-owned broadband network.
“We’re looking for long-term partners who share that ambition. Investors who want to grow with us, create lasting value and be co-authors of the next chapter in our region’s story.”
Liverpool was recently named the UK’s hottest property destination – bucking a sluggish national trend with an 8.5% rise in house prices driven by affordability and strong rental demand.
With the City Region’s world-famous culture, heritage and sport and world-leading innovation fuelled by its world-class universities, it’s also benefiting from one of the UK’s highest student retention rates of just over 76% – adding to its burgeoning talent pool.
Underpinning future ambitions is the Liverpool City Region Growth Plan: a bold and ambitious decade-long blueprint to create tens of thousands of jobs and increase the City Region’s £43.3bn economy by £10bn.
This will be achieved by accelerating growth in the City Region’s globally recognised strengths in advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, digital and technology and creative industries – supported by maritime, financial, professional and business services and a thriving visitor economy.
Developed and delivered by the Combined Authority in partnership with Government, industry, academia and communities, the Growth Plan highlights the City Region’s UK-leading collaborations between the public sector, industry and universities that are fuelling world-leading innovation in life sciences, materials and AI.
A new Mayoral Development Corporation is set to supercharge delivery of 17,500 homes and 5 million square feet of commercial space in Liverpool’s historic North Docks – building on momentum from construction of Everton FC’s new 52,769-capacity stadium.
The stadium sits alongside the Port of Liverpool which handles 45% of UK trans-Atlantic trade and the City Region has two nearby airports serving 200 destinations and is just two hours away from London by rail and 60% of UK markets by road. The City Region also benefits from Freeport status.
A new £500m City Region rail fleet connects a labour market of 2.5 million people and over £2bn more is set to be invested in public transport, while £700m Government funding for City Region housebuilding underpins a new £2bn pipeline to build 64,000 new homes.
Already home to Europe’s largest biomanufacturing cluster and the UK’s highest concentration of infection R&D, the City Region’s thriving life sciences sector is receiving up to £800m of public and private investment through its Innovation Zone status that will deliver new state-of-the-art facilities and create thousands of jobs.
Developments set to transform the sector include £125m plans to develop Maghull Health Park and projects to expand high-tech facilities at two nationally significant innovation campuses – Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sci-Tech Daresbury.
Further flagship investment opportunities include £5bn plans to redevelop Liverpool’s Central Station encompassing large parts of the city centre, and £550m plans to develop Health Innovation Liverpool (HIL).
Home to world-leading innovation in infection control, materials science and AI solutions, with emerging strengths in maritime and net-zero, the City Region has £1bn of live innovation projects and a £2bn innovation pipeline, as it plots a course to its goal of investing 5% GVA in R&D by 2030.
And with a new 350km full-fibre network making the region one of the UK’s most digitally connected, combined with world-class supercomputing assets including the £210m Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation, the region is well-placed to be a global leader in harnessing AI as a force for good – improving society, while driving economic growth.
Cllr Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council and LCR Cabinet Member for Innovation, said:
“Attracting investment into our City Region is essential for the jobs and housing that we need for our future economic success. MIPIM puts us in front of the world’s biggest investors, and with our new masterplans, shared vision and incredible development opportunities we will be making a compelling case that now is an ideal time to invest in the Liverpool City Region.”
Cllr Anthony Burns, Leader of St Helens Borough Council and LCR Cabinet Member for Net Zero, said:
“We head to MIPIM with one of our largest public and private sector delegations confident in the knowledge the Liverpool City Region will be presenting a compelling investment proposition to investors. With our globally recognised industrial and business strengths, world-leading innovation, more than £11bn of investment opportunities and new comprehensive plans to accelerate growth, we firmly believe now is a great time to invest in the City Region.”
Colin Sinclair, Chief Executive of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool and Sciontec Developments Limited and Chair of the Invest Liverpool City Region (ILCR) Partnership Taskforce, said:
“Something very special is happening in the Liverpool City Region that’s rightly getting noticed across the world and is attracting major overseas investors. With our global brand, world-leading innovation and brilliant people, we’re a City Region with momentum and unrivalled opportunities.”
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