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Liverpool Living
At a recent business lunch an editor of one of the North West’s business magazines (not Vision) was asked for their views on the state of Liverpool’s building boom. Their immediate comment was that there were too many empty apartments – 800 they insisted! Asking for their preference for developing a derelict site or leaving it derelict they responded with “leave it derelict”! Was this person promoting the thoughts of a respected and widely read magazine?
Perhaps I am missing an important point but surely most would rather see unsafe derelict buildings replaced with new apartments, offices, hotels and shops - even if only the majority were being used!
As a local entrepreneur and resident I would first raise an issue with “negative publicity”. We should talk up our achievements. If we have a surplus of apartments, instead broadcast our glass is half full not half empty. If we have refurbished or removed eyesores, lets announce our growth and vision, not our failings.
It would be silly to ignore the significant contribution made by our new business leaders. Without their investment and foresight we would unfortunately still have even more “cute” derelict buildings cluttering our landscape. These bold risk takers created many local jobs and attracted significant inward investment. We should therefore thank them instead of criticising their endeavours.
Also, the contribution of apartment owners to community/business taxes should not go unnoticed – even the owners of empty apartments pay tax! On the other hand how much does a derelict building contribute? My view is that our relatively new local community is unjustly and naively taken for granted. The city centre is quickly becoming the highest per-capita contributor to the coffers of local government and yet is lambasted and ridiculed for asking for better services or worse still choosing to leave an apartment empty!
I believe we must give urgent consideration to the current blitz of negative publicity and stop it from spreading. As people wiser than me say “don’t cut your nose off to spite your face”. Maybe my suggestions below are already in place, perhaps similar ideas have been discussed and discounted. However, I passionately believe they have relevance and merit.
Do’s
- Talk up the success of new developments.
- Create a climate of which Liverpool is seen as visionary, cultural & risk taking (but still aware).
- Create a strategic development plan “Liverpool without Limit” aiming to clear Liverpool City Centre of all derelict sites within 5 years.
- Let investors build on sites that are difficult, derelict and not used.
- Issue enforceable and rapid CPO orders on all derelict sites.
- Issue CPO orders on buildings wholly unused for a period of 10 years or more.
- Offer CPO sites for sale by tender selling to the highest bidder – with the proviso that the site or building is re-developed/refurbished within 2 years. The council wins on several counts – they make a profit on a sale, they get others to develop eyesore sites, they improve cash flow from new business and from taxes and they improve the aesthetics of the city.
- Create a marketing campaign “Liverpool Living”. Attracting corporate sector investment and actively promote the merits of mass re-location. Broadcast the availability, quality and variety of housing within the wider city and city centre. Better still its partly “green” living and its available today.
Dont's
- Alienate developers and investors. Adverse planning decisions and attacks from the media will only result in stopping them coming to Liverpool, moving their considerable funds elsewhere. We should refrain from talking about temporary halts on new developments. It gives investors the opportunity to move elsewhere (and potentially never to return).
- Concentrate on housing sustainability. A difficult issue often seen as outmoded in a quickly changing market and difficult to justify in one that’s new and unusual. Also leads to questions about office and retail space availability, etc.
- Discuss empty apartments. We should stop giving exposure to the empty apartment red herring. Figures of 800, 1000 and 1300 have been raised in the last week. What are the true figures? What is it as a proportion of the available market and how many of those are contributing to local taxes?
Great cities like great leaders are bold visionaries. I believe Liverpool still has the instinct to be a great city!
If you want to offer your comments please contact me, Gary Millar on email address gary@ccuk.com
