Nearly £10m will bring hundreds of homes to Festival Gardens

A £10m cash boost will bring a former Liverpool beauty spot back to life and provide homes for hundreds of families, the government has announced.

Homes England said it will give £9.9m ($13.2m) to Liverpool City Council to build up to 1,500 much-needed family homes on the city’s neglected Festival Gardens site. The council bought the site, which housed Liverpool International Garden Festival in 1983, for £6m in 2015.

According to the housing agency, the cash injection from the government’s £450m Local Authority Accelerated Construction (LAAC) programme will allow “essential remediation work” to take place on the Otterspool site, paving the way for residential development to begin.

READ MORE: Another £500m promised to affordable housing projects in England

Edward Lister, chairman of Homes England, said: “We are determined to use all the resources available to us to make homes happen across England – so I’m thrilled our funding means work can move forward rapidly at this historic site, providing homes for hundreds of families.

“And with Homes England and combined authority experts now working side by side, we expect to further accelerate the construction of new houses across the region.”

The Festival Gardens was the subject of a £1m redevelopment plan including 2,500 homes and a major leisure attraction in early 2018. However, earlier this month, the council revealed decades worth of rubbish will have to be removed from the former landfill site before construction can begin.

READ MORE: Cash boost to help build 200,000 homes in new garden towns

Remediation work could cost anywhere from £13.9m to £22.7m, according to the council. In addition to £6m of site investigations that took place in 2018, this means the total cost of clearing the site could be up to £29m.

Joe Anderson, mayor of Liverpool, said this new “essential financial injection” will help create “an iconic destination”, adding that the council is still “testing feasibility” for leisure space.

“Festival Gardens is a much-loved waterfront location and people have very fond memories of spending time there,” Anderson said. “We are fully aware of the potential the Festival Gardens has and its transformation will be a game-changer for this city’s economy in terms of new homes, construction jobs and growth.

READ MORE: Another £250m will go towards building new homes in England

“Thanks to this funding, the council can start essential remediation works on site and move forward with the vision of creating a significant number of new family homes in South Liverpool at an iconic destination.

“Alongside this, we are testing feasibility for a leisure element on site – Festival Gardens will not only deliver a much sought-after housing development, but also a first class visitor and cultural destination.”