New year, new town and new budget

COUNCIL LEADER ON CHALLENGES FACING CITY IN 2026

- By DAVID HUMPHREYS

LIVERPOOL will move “at pace” to build a new town in the north of the city despite not receiving government backing, according to the council's leader.

Cllr Liam Robinson will begin his third year at the head of Liverpool Council in 2026 and sat with the ECHO to look over the highs and lows of running the local authority.

Last year, the ECHO exclusively revealed the council and its partners want to transform a sprawling five-kilometre area into a new town, to be known as Liverpool North, to revitalise the north end of the city and into Sefton.

However, during this year's Labour Party conference held in Liverpool the government said they would not support the bid, which was in competition with other schemes around the UK.

Whitehall officials said each bid was subjected to stringent tests around its potential to unlock economic growth and accelerate housing delivery.

Cllr Robinson said the council would not be deterred despite the knockback.

The first element of the scheme was unveiled by cabinet members earlier this month, with plans for Vescock Street and Limekiln Lane unveiled as part of the Greatie Market/Scotland Road regeneration scheme.

The city leader said: "I think from our perspective, yes, we were disappointed, but we're going to do it anyway. We'd already fleshed out a bit of a skeleton Plan B of how we would do it, and that's what we're cracking on with.

"We're very much still in dialogue with the government.

"We know there's some parts of the country that don't want to have a new town, so we're ready to go onto the list if the government will have us, but we're basically making sure that we do crack on and do all of this.

"Whether it has a badge attached to it or not, the housing need in north Liverpool and across into Bootle is very, very significant and we think this is a huge opportunity that we're going to do one way or another.