Liverpool Waters’ director of development spoke to the ECHO about what is to come from the project in 2025
Liverpool Waters’ director of development spoke to the ECHO about what is to come from the project in 2025
The Liverpool Waters project will “change the city’s skyline” with “exciting” skyscraper plans expected in 2025, according to the director of the development. Described as an “ambitious 30-year vision to completely transform the city’s northern docks”, the £5bn scheme is being delivered by property giants Peel and spans 2.3km along the banks of the River Mersey.
The project is split into five neighbourhoods – Central Docks, Clarence Docks, King Edward Triangle, Princes Dock and Northern Docks. The full site stretches from the northern edge of Liverpool city centre to Bramley-Moore Dock, where Everton FC’s new stadium has been built.
It aims to regenerate the post-industrial landscape of Liverpool’s northern docks through a wide range of residential, commercial and cultural developments. It was granted outline planning permission in 2013 and some noticeable progress has been made in the years since.
This includes a number of commercial and residential developments which have sprung up around Princes Dock, a new sauna and the Isle of Man Ferry Terminal, which opened this year. More than 200 new homes have also been built in Central Docks since the scheme began but most of the completed work has been seen in Princes Dock, which is the first phase of Liverpool Waters.
Next year will see Everton move into their new stadium for the start of the 2025/26 football season and we can expect to see movement at Central Docks, which has been backed by government funding and now has contractors GRAHAM on site, and at King Edward Triangle, which has been earmarked for a cluster of skyscrapers. Liverpool Waters’ development director Chris Capes spoke to the ECHO about progress made so far and what is to come from Liverpool Waters in 2025.
He said: “From our perspective, there has been a huge amount that has happened in the northern docklands this year, particularly two main projects that sit within the Northern Docks and Central Docks area.
The Isle of Man Ferry Terminal, which opened earlier this year and is now the main connection between the north of the UK and the Isle of Man. That’s a project that the Isle of Man has been delivering and we’ve been supporting them – it’s fantastic for them and means they can move from their existing plot down on the Pier Head.
“Everton’s stadium is also a huge one. Being built by Everton, that’s a huge project for the city and one that’s an absolute game changer for us. It just switches the focus to that northern part of the docks.
“From our point of view, there have been a couple of big announcements as well. We got planning last year for Central Docks, which is 2,350 homes in that area just north of Jesse Hartley Way, sitting just off Regent Road.
“That’s further delivery of the park (a new public park called Central Park located in Central Docks), the infrastructure, the public realm, continuing the riverside promenade further north. It doesn’t quite get up to Everton at this point but it takes you quite a bit further north.
“Important for us is now how we then deliver that with the announcement by the new Labour government of funding from Homes England. It’s a project we’ve been working on for quite a few years but it’s fantastic that the Labour government and the Treasury made that announcement and reiterated it around the budget.
“Our focus now is to get that on-site next year and to actually start on-site and get the delivery of the infrastructure next year to create those development plots. “
Central Docks is the largest neighbourhood within Liverpool Waters and the city’s largest brownfield site. Full planning approval for the preparation work on the site was granted by Liverpool City Council in March 2023 and plans for Central Docks include the establishment of a 4.7 acre public park called ‘Central Park’ as well as the implementation of infrastructure to accommodate approximately 2,350 new homes. It will also include new residential and commercial developments – as well as a new cultural building.
In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves announced that the Labour government would be tackling so-called “stalled sites” in order to build new homes and hopefully grow the economy. Central Docks was mentioned by Ms Reeves as an example of one of these sites and £56m of government funding was later allocated to the project before contractor GRAHAM was appointed to deliver the first phase on site earlier this month.
About Ms Reeves’ verdict and the next steps for Central Docks, Mr Capes told the ECHO: “I don’t share the stalled sites moniker. We’re a huge scheme of three decades and these things take a long time. They take a long time to secure planning for, they take a long time to the fund.
“Pace is important to us and that move into Central Docks has been huge. That’s what it’s taken a long time to get to. We’ve certainly been working on it for the best part of three and a half years and then there will be a delivery period roughly similar to that. These projects do take a lot of time.
“That’s partly due to the complicated nature of the site. We’re dealing with what was a former dock site that had a coal-fired power station on it until the 1980s, it has a lot of underlying ground infrastructure but a requirement for infrastructure to be delivered in that location.
“We probably wouldn’t say it was stalled in the way that some other sites in the city have been stalled or are highlighted as stalled and the council are working on bringing those sites forward.
“I accept that the pace thing is an important thing and that’s why we’ve focussed on bringing that Central Docks part of the city forward. From a delivery pace perspective, that will take probably eight to ten years to deliver out, so 2,500 homes and at the same time we will be working on those neighbourhoods further north – that Clarence Dock neighbourhood and the Northern Docks neighbourhood.”
With the crucial next steps in mind, Peel submitted a modified plan for Liverpool Waters in July of this year. Everton had not selected Bramley-Moore Dock as the location for a new stadium when the original plans were drawn up, so the new plan reflects the addition of a 52,000 football stadium within the project – as well as changes in working habits and transport needs. The new master plan also has provisions for multiple waterfront hotels.
In March, before the masterplan was revised, Liverpool Waters saw the company behind Home Bargains and the man behind Liverpool’s tallest tower join forces to buy the former industrial estate in the King Edward Triangle neighbourhood. It is currently home to a number of hospitality businesses but TJ Morris and Beetham are planning a landmark high-rise development on the site.
Mr Capes cited the King Edward Triangle as proof that Liverpool Waters will bring about significant change in how the city looks. He said: “It will change the skyline, definitely.
“We’re part of two tall building clusters within Liverpool – King Edward Triangle is one of them and the development in Princes Dock has been quite tall, I think the Lexington is 33 storeys. Central Docks has a secondary tall building cluster within it. From the Wirral, as you look over and from other parts of the city, it will change the skyline.
“From a development point of view, we’re as keen as anybody to move on at pace. We are working with development partners who we know well and who we have worked with before, who will come on board and start to bring forward plots in Central Docks. Some of which we will deliver with them, some they will deliver themselves.
“We’re very keen to move forward at a pace. It’s got to be a pace that can be absorbed in the city as well. You can’t build 1,000 houses every year for ten years within one site and expect that take-up to happen instantly, so there’s a balance between needs.
“But we know there are a lot of needs within Liverpool for residential. From our perspective, it’s about delivering different typologies as well. Yes, there will be quite a lot of apartments within the scheme, but there will be townhouses, maisonettes, we’ve got some lovely plots along the dock wall that will deliver some really, really nice lower-level housing.”
Looking to 2025, Mr Capes said: “Getting on-site in Central Docks next year is going to be a big thing for us. GRAHAM is on-site doing a lot of survey and design work for us. That will be completed early next year and we want to be on site in the middle of the year.
“Then there is TJ Morris and Beetham on King Edward Triangle. We know they’re really keen and they’ll be bringing forward a lot of planning applications over the next 12 months. That’s quite exciting.”
