Liverpool City Region awards £12M funding for Paddington Village development

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has approved in principle a £12m grant for infrastructure work to unlock development on Liverpool City Council’s £1bn Paddington Village scheme, creating 870 new jobs, and boosting the local economy by £58m per year.

The £12m grant would pay for enabling works, including demolition of existing building and bringing services to the site, on the central 8.4 acres of the 30 acre Paddington Village, which is the flagship regeneration scheme in Knowledge Quarter Liverpool (KQ Liverpool).

This funding, from the Combined Authority’s Single Investment Fund, will help pave the way for the first phase of construction at Paddington Village, which sits within one of the city’s Mayoral Development Zones.

The Paddington Village scheme will see the arrival of the Royal College of Physician’s (RCP) new £35m northern base, a new learning centre for the Liverpool International College and the new £35m Rutherford Cancer Centre North West.

Planning permission has already been granted for the international college and cancer centre, both of which are scheduled to open in 2019, and an application from the RCP is expected in early 2018.

There has been interest from a number of science and health-based organisations about taking up office space at Paddington Village, with a further c.140,000 sq ft of office developments, in addition to the RCP North building, planned to meet that demand.

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, said:

“The primary purpose of the Combined Authority’s Single Investment Fund is to unlock economic potential to accelerate growth for the city region, so this £12m investment to enable development of the Paddington Village scheme makes perfect sense. This funding alone will create nearly 900 new jobs, will boost the local economy by £58m a year, and will play a vital role in the success of Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter, which is so important for the future prosperity of the city region as a whole.”

Councillor Ann O’Byrne, Deputy Mayor of Liverpool, said:

“Paddington Village is part of Mayor Anderson’s vision for a new high quality science-based asset for Liverpool. After building a new school to relocate Archbishop Blanch the city council has created a prime city centre site of 30 acres to enable this exciting knowledge based development to come to fruition.”

Colin Sinclair, Chief Executive of KQ Liverpool, said:

“Paddington Village is one of the most exciting and innovative schemes in the Northern Powerhouse and will further contribute to the £5bn plus Health and Life Science cluster that already exists in Liverpool City Region. With the hoardings up at Paddington, and this vital investment in the site infrastructure now in place, we have taken a huge step towards KQ Liverpool becoming a world-leading innovation district and a global destination for science health and education.”

Professor Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor, University of Liverpool, and Chair of KQ Liverpool, said:

“Paddington Village is at the heart of the Knowledge Quarter and this funding is an important step towards bringing it to fruition.  As we work to establish one of the world’s leading innovation districts, it is vital that we attract and retain the very best students, graduates, scientists, clinicians, academics and business innovators, to help the city region, and the North as a whole, compete with London and the South East.  That is exactly what the Paddington Village scheme is doing.”