A growth fund that allocated £313m to businesses in the city region could result in the creation of 18,000 new jobs, analysis from the combined authority suggests.
The Local Growth Fund, which the combined authority allocated completely by the end of March this year, has already resulted in the creation of almost 8,000 jobs, with the prediction of more to come.
Almost 200 projects throughout the region's six boroughs have received funding, including the redevelopment of Kirkby Town Centre and the new Maghull North station.
The money, allocated by government to the combined authority, had to be used between 2015 and 2021.
Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said the locally led nature of the investment showed the importance of devolution in ensure economic growth in our region.
Metro Mayor Rotheram said: “In just a few years we’ve invested more than £300m in every part of our region, creating nearly 8,000 jobs and helping more than 11,000 people gain new skills. By 2025 we will have created 18,000 jobs and generated an additional £225m worth of investment in our economy.
“The result at last month’s elections was a massive vote of confidence in the impact that devolution has had in our region in a short space of time.
“Local people can see the impact of what we’re doing – and they want more. If the government is serious about ‘levelling up’, they have to give more funding and power to areas like ours.”
The investment has funded a range of projects across transport, skills and business growth.
Asif Hamid, MBE, chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said a strategy of how to spend the fund back in 2014 was now bearing fruit for the region.
Mr Hamid said: “Developing the Growth Plan in 2014 was the first step in devolving resource and responsibility in return for local economic leadership - and I am pleased that the LEP was at the forefront of this opportunity, working with the private and public sector, to seek freedoms, flexibilities, and influence over resources from government.
“The projects we identified such as investment in the Liverpool City Centre; building on our freight and logistics hub capabilities; our ambition to be energy self-sufficient, as well as priorities in skills, innovation and business formed the cornerstones of our Growth Plan– to ultimately create more business, more investment, more jobs and more prosperity.
“I am immensely proud that the vision and priorities we set out back in 2014 are now coming to fruition for the good of our community.”
