Liverpool City Council are going out to tender for a firm of consultants to deliver a strategy that will present the city as open for business and investment.

Cllr Nick Small, Cabinet Member for Growth and Economy, stated in Place North West:

“The Development and Investment Strategy will maximise the potential of the opportunities in Liverpool over the coming years and is just one element of the work that is going on across the organisation at the moment to make sure we transform how we work and maximise the opportunities for our residents and businesses.”

You can read more about the Strategy in this Place North West article.

Another strategy?

The city is no stranger to various reports and documents over the years or to being told by previous leaders that we are a ‘world beating’ city open for business and investment. However it took the Caller Report to burst the official bubble and ground both politicians and citizens in the reality of which many people were already aware of a ‘dysfunctional culture’ operating with impunity within the Council. Seldom mentioned is the impact on investment into the city of the behaviour of some local developers specialising in ‘fractional sales’ and the huge loses suffered by investors in the Far East and even closer to home, as site after site went bust. Some of their investment forays into Asia were accompanied by the logo of the Mayor of Liverpool.

It has taken a number of years before the city decided that a rebrand is necessary. It is to be welcomed. However it would be good to find some comment or reference in the forthcoming document to the 2012 Liverpool City Centre Strategic Investment Framework and what happened to it. What worked, what was delivered, and what remains to be done?

We would also like to know how this new Strategy relates to the numerous Strategic (Spatial) Regeneration Framework documents published by LCC over the past few years:

• Ropewalks SRF December 2005
• Paddington Village SRF February 2017
• Ten Streets SRF March 2017
• Upper Central SRF July 2019
• Commercial Business District SRF November 2019
• Cavern Quarter & Williamson Square SRF January 2020
• The Baltic Triangle SRF August 2020

There is of course the Liverpool Strategic Futures Advisory Panel set up by the Government in August 2022 – will they be included and considered even though we have heard nothing from them as yet! We should also pay tribute to the work of the Liverpool BID Company who we believe have commissioned a position paper on Liverpool Waterfront and recently established the country’s first Accommodation BID . They will certainly be consulted in the process of developing a new Strategic Report for the city. We shouldn’t forget the impact and influence of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority in their new Business and Enterprise Board  (formerly the Local Enterprise Partnership) and their existing Grow Platform which is Liverpool City Region’s Growth Company co-founded with the former LEP.