Liverpool City Council has welcomed a multi-million pound boost for its life sciences hub and for one of the city’s well-loved markets.
In a speech at the Convention of The North conference ahead of the weekend, Secretary of State for Levelling up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove announced a £31m investment package for the city.
The majority of the funding will be spent on the major development at Paddington Village in the heart of the city’s 450-acre Knowledge Quarter Innovation District, with the minister stating the government’s support for an “arc of opportunity” across the city to Bramley Moore Dock.
Liverpool City Council set out its investment proposal to DLUHC late last year and the announcement follows the Interim Report of the Liverpool Strategic Futures Panel, chaired by Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram.
The new funding will see:
Upto £13m spent on delivering HEMISPHERE One – a new 8-storey Grade A office which will include up to five floors of new labs and promote net zero principles in Paddington Village
Upto £13m to acquire sites (such as Smithdown Lane Police Station) and remediate and masterplan phase two of Paddington Village
Upto £5m to enable an upgrade for Great Homer Street Market in Everton, which will allow for its expansion to attract more traders
HEMISPHERE One is a £60m scheme to be delivered by Sciontec, which is a partnership between the Council, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, and Bruntwood SciTech.
The 115,000 sq ft scheme will include 80,000 sq ft of lab space in the building’s top five floors, in line with the Liverpool City Region’s Health and Life Sciences Investment Zone vision.
Construction of HEMISPHERE One is expected to begin in early 2025 and be complete by early 2027.
Gove said: “We know there is immense potential for urban regeneration in Liverpool and the wider city region. That is why the vision set out in the Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel report is so important. And that’s why we are backing it today it with £31m of new money for regeneration projects, which trace an arc of opportunity from the Knowledge Quarter to Bramley Moore Docks on the waterfront.”
Council Leader, Cllr Liam Robinson, added: “This funding is also a huge vote of confidence in our vision to be one of Europe’s leading centres for research and development in the life-sciences.”
