Despite the ongoing uncertainty of the pandemic, the city region has continued to develop and change with a number of headline projects taking root across the six boroughs.
The new term facing Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, after his re-election in May, should see the pay-off of work begun during his first four years in office.
In a recent wide ranging interview with the ECHO, reflecting on the first six months of his second term, he outlined how the years to come will serve as the best demonstration of what a combined authority can achieve.
READ MORE: City Region could see biggest transformation since 2008 capital of culture
He said: “In the first term, we were more, 'we would like to do X, Y, and Zed'. And now we're saying, ‘look at this which we have delivered’. And so it's better for us to try to demonstrate just what the Combined Authority and devolution is all about."
Already developments around Paddington Village and the overhaul of Kirkby town centre have got underway in 2021 with support from the Combined Authority funding.
But there isn’t a sense of now watching and waiting for its work to pay off.
With funding poured into a range of projects, 2022 will be as much about laying further groundwork and its eventual delivery.
Here are 12 of the projects the Combined Authority are hoping will help transform the city region from the start of 2022.
Shakespeare North, Prescot
This summer will see the opening of the Shakespeare North Playhouse.
Supported by the Combined Authority with £10m for the theatre itself, and £8m for associated transport improvements, and created by Knowsley Council, the Combined Authority hope that the new playhouse will give people from across the UK and further afield another reason to come and visit the city region.
This eye-catching project will celebrate Knowsley’s links with Elizabethan drama and Shakespeare himself, aiming to attract visitors and students from all over the world. It will feature a 350-seat theatre, a visitor attraction, a broad-based education offer, a studio theatre for a wide range of uses and an outdoor performance garden.
The project is expected to generate hundreds of jobs, boosting the city region economy by £13 million a year during construction and £5.3 million a year following opening.
The Combined Authority hope this exciting new attraction will play a key role in Knowsley’s year as the Borough of Culture in 2022.
Everton Stadium, North Docks
In September this year, the Combined Authority agreed plans to invest up to £45m to support the “transformational regeneration” of large parts of north Liverpool and south Sefton by supporting work linked to the development of Everton FC's new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock. Work is already underway on site and will continue at a pace through 2022.
The stadium will take around three years to build and will become one of north of England’s largest construction projects. Overall, the project will create up to 15,000 jobs including new roles at the completed stadium and employment linked to a projected increase in visitors to the city region.
Eureka! Science + Discovery, Seacombe
A £6.4 million investment from the Combined Authority is supporting the creation of the Eureka! Science + Discovery visitor attraction at Seacombe Ferry Terminal with the ambition of creating a £12 million world-class visitor attraction.
Set to open in Autumn 2022, the new attraction, which has been co-created by the team behind the Eureka! Halifax National Children’s Museum in partnership with more than 120 young people from the Liverpool City Region, is dedicated to helping bridge the STEM skills gap, encouraging young people to engage more with key subjects through a range of unique exhibits and interactive experiences.
Eureka! Science + Discovery is being developed in the existing Seacombe Ferry Terminal and former Spaceport site, linking it to the Liverpool Waterfront via the Mersey Ferries. It is backed by Wirral Council and the project is aiming to play an important role in ambitious plans for the regeneration of the Left Bank of the River Mersey.
Runcorn Station Quarter
The Combined Authority is investing £18.2 million in Halton Council’s flagship scheme to transform access to Runcorn Station and regenerate the vicinity of the station. The Runcorn Station Quarter project will be complete in 2022, with the Combined Authority hoping it will create an impressive gateway to Runcorn, Halton and the Liverpool City Region, and improving links between the station and Runcorn town centre. It’s an exciting time for Runcorn, as Halton Council has also won £23.6m from the government’s Towns’ Fund to support the development of office space, as part of the Runcorn Station Quarter project.
Glass Futures, St Helens
Construction will start in January on Glass Futures, a project the Combined Authority believes will put the Liverpool City Region at the forefront of decarbonising the global glass industry.
Based in the traditional centre of the UK glass making industry in St Helens, Glass Futures is a unique, industry-backed research and technology organisation, leading collaboration across some of the largest companies in the global glass industry and its supply chain, together with academia and local and central government.
The project has been awarded a £9m grant from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and secured a £15m UKRI grant to support the installation of a globally unique, experimental furnace and state of the art infrastructure, capable of melting 30 tonnes of glass per day in a safe experimental space. Glass sector companies will also contribute a further £20m in resource, time and equipment to support the project. The project has also received significant backing from St Helens Borough Council.
Crosby Lakeside Activity Centre
Supported with a £3.1m investment from the Combined Authority, Sefton Council’s plans to refurbish Crosby Lakeside Activity Centre will be completed in 2022.
Built in 2008, Crosby Lakeside is situated at the entrance to the Crosby Coastal Path and provides hospitality, leisure, watersports and fitness facilities adjacent to Crosby Marine Lake, with specific provision for disabled visitors.
The funding will enable Sefton Council, which owns Crosby Lakeside, to undertake extensive refurbishment and extension work that will create enhanced wedding, conference, hotel, dining and bar facilities at the centre. There will also be improved overnight accommodation, enabling a greater number of school and community groups to access its broad range of activities.
Headbolt Lane Station, Kirkby
With planning permission recently granted, work will begin on site in January 2022 on an £80m scheme to create a new station at Headbolt Lane in Kirkby. The development is part of Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram’s ‘Merseyrail for All’ plan to connect under-served communities to the network.
It’s also a key part of the Mayor’s plans to deliver a London-style integrated transport system for the City Region, which aims to bring together bus, rail, ferry and active travel in one simple, affordable and easy to use transport network.
Kirkby Town Centre
The Combined Authority is investing nearly £13m to support Knowsley Council’s ambitious redevelopment of Kirkby Town Centre. The first phase, supported with a £10m investment, is now complete and has brought a 45,000 sq ft Morrisons superstore, a petrol station, car park, a 20,000 sq ft Home Bargains and Taco Bell and KFC drive-thru restaurants as part of the retail-led development in the town centre.
Work is now under way on the second phase, which will include a multi-screen cinema with food and drink outlets. The project so far has created nearly 400 jobs, with more to come, and will look to boost the local economy by more than £15m per year.
LCR Connect roll out continues
Work will continue throughout 2022 will see work continuing on the roll out of LCR Connect, a 212km full-fibre, ultrafast, gigabit-capable network spanning the Liverpool City Region.
LCR Connect will help make the Liverpool City Region the most digitally connected area in the UK with hopes of leading to a £1 billion boost to the local economy.
The network will be capable of delivering speeds of 1,000mbps and beyond, and will help position the city region at the head of the next digital revolution.
When complete, the Combined Authority believes it will put city region businesses in prime position to lead the way in a host of growing sectors, from health and life sciences to Artificial Intelligence and advanced manufacturing.
LCR Connect is a £30m joint venture, 50%-owned by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, led by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, in partnership with North West-based ITS Technology Group, who lead the project, working alongside construction partner NGE, who are managing the build and roll out of the network.
Housebuilding
Work will continue in 2022 on developing 'brownfield' sites across the Liverpool City Region to build nearly 4000 new homes.
The Combined Authority has now committed £45m to enable the development of more than 20 sites across the region. House building has already started in Liverpool and Halton, on schemes identified in the first allocation of funding in 2020.
The Combined Authority investment will be used for site remediation and other measures required to make sites ready for development.
Building on 'Brownfield First' is one of the Combined Authority’s priorities as it seeks to ensure that the city region has the right number and type of homes available to tackle the housing crisis.
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.
Tackling fuel poverty
Energy saving measures are already being installed in 3,600 low-income homes across the city region, thanks to a £40 million investment from the Combined Authority.
The Combined Authority has successfully bid for the funding from a range of government schemes and is using the cash to fit a host of energy saving measures, including solar panels, additional insulation, double glazing and air-source heat pumps.
The Combined Authority not only believes the investment will cut bills for low-income families, lifting them out of fuel poverty, it will also reduce emissions and bring the Liverpool City Region closer to hitting its goal of becoming net zero carbon by 2040.
LCR Ventures
This year will see LCR Ventures, launched in December 2021, really get into gear, supporting the city region’s health and life sciences innovators to turn their great ideas into high-growth businesses and good quality jobs.
The new company has been created thanks to a £10.5m investment from the Combined Authority, part of Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram’s vision for the Liverpool City Region to be a UK innovation powerhouse.
The Liverpool City Region is aiming to invest nearly double the national target on Research and Development (R&D) by 2030, linked to £3bn of innovation projects.
LCR Ventures will initially provide so called 'incubator' services and funding to very early-stage start-up companies in the Liverpool City Region’s health and life sciences sector, which is one of the strongest in the country.
