Liverpool City Region Combined Authority unveils plans for Investment Zone funding

Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has today announced how it intends to maximise the value of around £80 million of Government Investment Zone funding.

A new report, which will be reviewed by the combined authority at a meeting on Wednesday 6 September, outlines 21 projects and their provisional funding allocation.

With a focus on life sciences, the Liverpool City Region Investment Zone could unlock more than £300m of private investment and create 4,000 jobs across Liverpool, Runcorn, St Helens, Maghull and Prescot.

An initial £10m investment will be made by US manufacturer TriRx to enhance its capabilities in the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies, which is a type of immunotherapy that works by blocking certain diseases, including cancer and arthritis, from affecting healthy cells.

The investment in Liverpool’s Speke Pharma cluster is the first step in unlocking a pipeline of up to £320m of private funding across the next five years.

Among the schemes revealed in the report are:

• Compound Labs: Compound Labs is a new 126,142 sq ft lab building on Paddington Village in the Knowledge Quarter Innovation District. It will include both commercial and academic lab accommodation, and well as providing a home for the Centre for Long-acting Therapeutics. £10m has been provisionally allocated for the scheme.
• CELT: Compound will be built on Paddington Village by Sciontec. It will house 43,055 sq ft of pharmacology and chemistry laboratories in the Centre of Excellence in Long-Acting Therapeutics (CELT), operated by UoL.
• Hemisphere: Also in Paddington Village, Hemisphere will be an eight-storey innovation-led workspace and lab development. Extending to 116,092 sq ft, the scheme is due for completion in 2025. £1.5m has been provisionally allocated.
• Earlsfield Park: Earlsfield Park in Knowsley is a 30-acre opportunity site which benefits from planning permission. On site infrastructure was recently completed to support a new employment park.
• Violet Phase 2: Phase 2 of the Violet scheme at Sci-Tech Daresbury will include the creation of two structures, including a 60,000 sq ft laboratory building and a 23,000 sq ft office building. The scheme could benefit from £9.5m of funding.
• Maghull Health Park: Mersey Care wants to develop its 103.7-acre Ashworth hospital and former HMP Kennet site in St Helens into an international centre of excellence for mental health. Mersey Care wants to build on the £120m investment it has received to date and, with the support of Sefton Council, hopes to attract additional development, investment and employment opportunities at the site.
• Manufacturing and Innovation Campus: £15m is requested create a cluster of life science, manufacturing and innovation businesses on strategic development sites. The project is supported by the Towns Fund, LCRCA and a partnership with NSG Pilkington to redevelop the former Watson St Works site.

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