Political leaders from across the Liverpool City Region have visited the first housing development to be completed as part of the city region’s £60m Brownfield Land Fund programme to create around 4,000 new homes.
Mayor Steve Rotheram and the leaders of Liverpool and Knowsley Councils – Councillors Liam Robinson and Graham Morgan – visited Finch Gardens, Knotty Ash, to see how the Fund is transforming previously developed land across the city region.
The 105-property Finch Gardens development is a partnership between Riverside, Liverpool City Council, Birkenhead-based developer Lovell, and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and has delivered a combination of two, three and four-bedroom high-quality homes.
The £280,000 Brownfield Land Fund grant supported construction of the £12.6m development and bridged a viability gap enabling the project to go ahead.
Finch Gardens has been created on the empty site of a former 1950s housing estate and was funded by Homes England, the Recycled Capital Grant Fund and the Brownfield Land Fund.
Since the original Brownfield Land Fund was announced in July 2020, the Combined Authority has already agreed plans to invest £32.4m in 20 projects across the Liverpool City Region, which will deliver 2,639 homes. The £60m project is expected to create around 4,000 homes.
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:
“We are specifically targeting brownfield sites to help protect our precious green spaces from over development – turning once-forgotten areas back into thriving communities.
“I want everyone in our area to have the chance to realise their home ownership ambitions – to get their foot on the property ladder and invest in their future.
“Yet, for too long, achieving that dream has been out of reach for many of our residents who have been forced to contend with a broken housing market, that simply doesn’t work for them. Thanks to devolution, we are working to put that right by investing £60m into to open up a pipeline of 4,000 homes across our six boroughs by ensuring that there are suitable sites for development.”
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said:
“It’s great to see Finch Gardens completed, with many of those high-quality homes now occupied and a huge amount of interest in the development. The range of sizes of home and different tenures on offer from Riverside are a great example of what we need to do in the city region to tackle the ongoing housing crisis.
“I’m glad that as a city council we were able to play a major role in making this development happen. Bringing disused land back into productive use is a great example of what we are able to do across the city region, working with the Combined Authority’s Brownfield Land Fund.”
Councillor Graham Morgan, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Portfolio Holder for Housing and Spatial Planning, said:
“We are determined to ensure there is a great choice of high-quality homes, right across the city region, as part of our ambitious plans to ensure that we tackle the housing shortage.
“Building on brownfield sites is at the heart of that process – after all there are around 700 of them with enough space to build 42,000 homes – and this development at Finch Gardens is a great example of how previously developed land can be brought back into use to deliver high-quality homes. Across our city region developments like this are helping ensure that we are building homes to suit everybody.”
Carol Matthews, Group Chief Executive at Riverside, said:
“Without the Brownfield Land Fund Grant, Riverside would have been unable to build these homes because the funding requirement from Riverside would have been too great and the scheme would have failed our viability test. The grant has made this scheme a reality and residents are enjoying their lovely new homes.
“We are most grateful for the partnership with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Liverpool City Council and Homes England in making this smashing scheme happen.”
Riverside offer a mix of houses and bungalows at Finch Gardens, with a range of tenures available to meet the needs of different home-seekers. As well as 58 Affordable Rent homes – where rent is capped at 80% of market value – there are 15 Shared Ownership homes and 32 Rent to Buy homes, which offer prospective homeowners an opportunity to take their first step into home ownership. Furthermore, a number of the Affordable Rent homes will be available for tenants to buy through the new Right to Shared Ownership, launched in 2021 as they are funded through the 2021-26 Affordable Housing Programme.
