Liverpool City Council today signed the contract on its first major housing scheme in more than 30 years.  

It may be a relatively modest start – the Denford Road site in Dovecot aims to deliver 105 homes in partnerships with local developers Lovells and registered provider Riverside – but is set to be followed by a series of bigger developments in South Liverpool (1,500 homes) and Fazakerley (1,200).

The council has committed to play a bigger role in providing housing as part of The City Plan, an initiative which has seen local authority leaders join forces with other prominent public sector figures to work together to improve all aspects of the city.

Councillor Barry Kushner, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “It is a landmark moment for Liverpool City Council to green light its first house building scheme for 30 years – and crucially these plans realise our ambition to provide high quality housing.

“A lot of work has been undertaken to scope out the housing needs of Liverpool in recent years, and the potential developments next to Festival Gardens and at Stonebridge Cross.”

The Denford Road scheme contains a mix of homes for affordable and social rent and underlines the council’s commitment to providing a range of housing tenure options across current and future schemes.

Liverpool City Council is also working in partnership with Homes England and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to develop an outline planning application for Stonebridge Cross in Croxteth, and the Combined Authority recently approved £210,000 of pre-development funding to support the project. It is anticipated that a full business case for scheme will be presented back to the council’s cabinet this autumn, after which work will begin on preparing a planning application.

The same three bodies are also working on the two-year long remediation of the development zone next to the city’s Festival Gardens and a planning application for 1,500 “eco-friendly” homes is expected to be submitted in early 2023.

Lovells, who are also acting as a funding partner, is due to start work in Dovecot later this month.