Liverpool City Region does not lack housing ambition. Hundreds of sites have been identified, billions of pounds have been committed to investment and large areas of former industrial land are capable of supporting new neighbourhoods.
The harder question is how those plans will be financed and delivered.
Speaking at UKREiiF 2026, Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram argued that central government should give local authorities greater freedom over the funding available for housebuilding. As outlined in recent UKREiiF housing coverage, his position is that councils and combined authorities understand how individual transport, infrastructure, land and housing projects fit together, but are often restricted by funding pots designed around narrow national criteria.
For Liverpool, this is not an abstract debate about devolution. The city region has identified approximately 64,000 potential homes across 310 sites, yet many remain difficult to build because remediation, infrastructure and construction costs make them commercially unviable.
A housing pipeline caught between potential and viability
Liverpool City Region’s housing pipeline stretches across Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton. It includes city-centre apartments, affordable family housing, former industrial land, town-centre regeneration sites and large developments capable of supporting entirely new communities.
The scale is substantial, but inclusion in a pipeline does not mean that construction can begin immediately. Many sites require expensive preparation before a developer can build a single home.
Typical barriers include:
- Contaminated land requiring extensive remediation.
- New roads, drainage, utilities and transport infrastructure.
- Abnormal construction costs linked to former industrial uses.
- Building safety and environmental requirements.
- Development values that do not support the full cost of delivery.
Analysis of the city region’s programme suggests that 139 priority projects could require approximately £1 billion of public support. Unlocking the complete pipeline may require closer to £2 billion.
This is the central problem facing Liverpool housebuilding. The land exists, demand exists and many sites already form part of local development strategies. What is missing is often the financial bridge between an approved vision and a viable construction project.
Brownfield development cannot be financed like a blank field
Liverpool’s industrial history gives the city a large supply of brownfield land, particularly around the docks, former manufacturing areas and transport corridors. Reusing this land can protect green spaces and place new homes close to existing jobs, amenities and public transport.
However, brownfield development is rarely straightforward. Former factories, warehouses, railway infrastructure and dockland can leave behind contamination, unstable ground, fragmented ownership and outdated utilities.
These costs arrive before revenue from completed homes can be generated. That can make a site unviable even when the final development would be highly valuable to the surrounding community.
The argument for greater flexibility is therefore based on the idea that local authorities should be able to combine different funding sources around the specific needs of a project. Housing funding might need to work alongside transport investment, land remediation grants, public-realm budgets and commercial development finance.
Rigid pots can prevent that combination. Money may be available for one element of a scheme but not another, even when both are required for the development to proceed.
The funding cocktail that could unlock stalled sites
At UKREiiF, the Liverpool City Region Mayor described the need to create a funding “cocktail” capable of resolving viability problems. This reflects how large regeneration schemes are actually delivered.
A brownfield neighbourhood may require several layers of support:
- Public funding for remediation and early infrastructure.
- Local authority land or development powers.
- Private development finance.
- Institutional investment in rental or affordable housing.
- Housing association involvement.
- Long-term income from commercial space or public assets.
No single source necessarily makes the development viable. The project becomes deliverable when those different elements can be assembled in the right sequence.
The North Docks will test the new approach
North Liverpool provides the clearest example of why flexible funding matters. Large parts of the docks contain underused industrial land with the potential to support thousands of homes, jobs and commercial spaces. They also carry some of the city’s most difficult infrastructure and remediation challenges.
A proposed Mayoral Development Corporation is intended to accelerate regeneration across approximately 430 acres, stretching from Liverpool’s waterfront towards Pumpfields and the Commercial District.
As detailed in regional property reporting on the development corporation, the area could support around 17,500 homes and five million sq ft of commercial space over 15 years.
The zone includes several strategically important sites:
- Central Docks and the wider Liverpool Waters masterplan.
- The King Edward Triangle development area.
- Pumpfields and Limekilns.
- The stalled Pall Mall commercial development.
- Land surrounding Everton’s new waterfront stadium.
The development corporation would be able to coordinate land, infrastructure, planning and investment across the area. This could prevent individual sites from being treated as isolated projects and allow them to form part of a connected regeneration programme.
