From 'managed decline' to regeneration rocket fuel
Source: The Times
At the turn of the 21st century, the UK’s first urban regeneration company unveiled a widely-ambitious plan to transform Liverpool into a world class destination for both tourists and business visitors. The scale of the city’s aspirations ranged from the largest retail-led development in Europe and a cruise liner facility to a £164 million arena and convention centre and the largest newly-built national museum in Britain. Detractors said it couldn’t be done.
More than a decade later and the naysayers have been forced to eat their words. Today Liverpool is the country’s fastest-growing economy outside London. Its waterfront ranks alongside the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China as a world heritage site and the visitor economy generates a spend of nearly £3 billion a year. In addition, some £6 billion of public and private sector money has been invested in the city over the past t10 years.
“Once again, Liverpool is an important engine of economic growth, not just for the North West region but for UK plc,” says Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liverpool Vision, the city’s economic development company which is funded entirely by Liverpool City Council. “And Liverpool is now using its international connections and global reach.”
Liverpool is known throughout the world for many attributes, not least its legacy as a vital port and flourishing mercantile district. VisitLiverpool’s description sums it up perfectly. The official tourism website for the city states: “Liverpool. The very name conjures up images of a glorious maritime history, world-beating musical heritage, two of the Premiership’s biggest football teams and not one, but two majestically different cathedrals.”
Mention Liverpool to someone who has never visited the place and a number of things are sure to come up: The Beatles, the iconic Three Graces, Liverpool Football Club and the River Mersey. But the city has also gathered a host of negative connotations throughout the years. In recent times, it has worked to shake off images of the Toxteth riots, high unemployment, destructive local politics and a once-mighty port that had fallen in disrepair and dereliction. The release of confidential Cabinet documents from 30 years ago, revealing that Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon Liverpool to “managed decline”, did not help.
Councillor Joe Anderson, leader of Liverpool City Council, acknowledges that the city faces a series of challenges. “I accept that in terms of the UK [as a whole], financially we are in a difficult position. The reality is that we are the most deprived local authority in the country and we are the hardest hit local authority in terms of the Government cuts. We recognise that it’s difficult and we are working harder.”
However, Mr Anderson goes on to say: “But I think we are getting there and people recognise that. Liverpool has been a sleeping giant for far too long. We Have woken up to the fact that we have got one of the friendliest populations in the world with a rich history.”
The work of politicians, businesses and local communities over the past 10 years has certainly done much to reinvigorate Liverpool’s economic, political and fiscal fortunes. One shining example is the regeneration of the majestic waterfront, famous for the Three Graces; the combined Edwardian elegance of the Royal Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings which have defined the view from the River Mersey for almost a century. Dubbed “the Southbank of the North”, since 2000 a staggering £1billion has been invested in the waterfront.
Mr Steinberg says: “The waterfront has been transformed into a visitor destination of international quality. We have built on the history of the area through innovation.”
Encompassing the four-year-old Arena and Conference Centre Liverpool, the new £72 million Museum of Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, the Albert Dock (which houses the largest group of grade 1 listed buildings in the UK), the recently-constructed Liverpool Canal Link and the Merseyside Maritime Museum, the waterfront is a magnet for tourists.
“The waterfront has been hugely influential in terms of bringing people to the city,” says Mr Anderson. “And there is the potential for new developments with the Peel Holdings site. I think their offer is as good as Canary Wharf in London.”
Under planning proposals due to be considered in March, the £5.5 billion Peel Holdings development to regenerate Liverpool’s northern docklands, called the Liverpool Waters scheme, features 9,000 flats, hundreds of offices, hotels, bars and a cruise terminal, as well as the 55-storey Shanghai Tower and other skyscrapers. It involves two clusters of tall buildings, one near the city centre and a second further north.
Although there are some concerns about the initiative’s impact on Liverpool’s world heritage status, Mr Anderson believes the investment is crucial and a key component of the city’s future prosperity.
“The docks in north Liverpool have been lying derelict for 20 years. Now we have got a scheme to build new office access, new retail, new houses. We are looking to transform north Liverpool.”
He adds: “Liverpool was once home to nearly one million people. Now we have around 430,000 people living here [which is partly due] to the decline of the docks. Now we are turning that around.”
The success of the European Capital of Culture in 2008, during which Liverpool welcomed 15 million cultural visits of whom 3.5 million were first time visitors, fuelled the region’s economy and its desire to attract more people to the area. The economic benefits to the city region were estimated at £800 million.
Completed in time to host the opening ceremony of the European Capital of Culture was the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool (ACC Liverpool). The 11,000-seater arena and 1,300 capacity convention centre is much in demand. Since 2008, it has hosted more than 500 events and run more than 500 separate conferences.
Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool, says there was an “enormous pent up demand” for an entertainment complex in the city.
“Liverpool is a great city and when people hold conferences here for the first time they are delighted with what’s on in the city,” he says. “Our retention rate [for people who book the centre again] is higher than at other venues I’ve been involved with before.
“Liverpool has a distinctive culture and personality that is legendary but is also quite real. It’s the friendliness more than anything else, the ability to welcome people that comes up time after time in our post-conference surveys.”
He continues: “On the concert front, we are staging 100-120 events a year and we are building on that. We are keeping the momentum going and building a programme of bigger and better events. We are looking to attract more European and international events. There is a long gestation period for booking, we now have events booked up until 2020 and some beyond that.”
This year ACC Liverpool will play host to, among others, the pop group Westlife and the comedian Michael McIntyre. At the convention centre, the prestigious BBC Showcase is booked in for February while the Royal College of Nursing returns in 2013. But the jewel in the conference centre’s crown is this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Congress which will attract thousands of international delegates to the city in March.
And ACC Liverpool is looking to grow. An extension is being built which will become an exhibition centre. Initial work on site is planned for early next year with a completion date of autumn 2014. Using a capital investment of £40 million, the finished product will comprise three halls and a total of 8,100 sq ft.
But the new exhibition centre isn’t the only major cultural addition devised for Liverpool. This April, the streets will be taken over by giant marionettes as part of the Sea Odyssey spectacular. Culture Liverpool, which is funded by the council, hopes that between 250,000 and 500,000 men, women and children will come to see the Odyssey over three days. It is the most complex event the city has ever staged and has involved hundreds of people in its planning and execution. It will be one of the highlights of a series of events in Liverpool to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.
“It’s about bringing great art to the city, which is free,” says Claire McColgan, director of Culture Liverpool, who was also involved in producing the programme for the European Capital of Culture year. “Sea Odyssey will bring the city to a standstill. And it’s not just about the city centre. North Liverpool is an area of huge potential. Part of the event will be in that area. We are using culture as rocket fuel for regeneration.”
Testament to Miss McColgan’s conviction of the importance of culture in Liverpool is the glut of events on the city’s 2012 entertainment calendar. On the waterfront, Tate Liverpool is running the blockbuster ‘Turner Monet Twombly’ exhibition which will be the British public’s only chance to see the works of three of the most prolific and well-known artists of all time in one space.
Of the seven national museums and galleries in Liverpool, all will be featuring must-see exhibits, not least the ‘Elvis and Us’ exhibition at The Beatles Story by the river. This explores how Elvis inspired the Beatles and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the formation of The Beatles.
“We see culture as a key driver of our economy,” says Miss McColgan. “For every £1 spent by us, we get £12 back from a visitor...The attitude to Liverpool has changed nationally. There is nothing dull about our city. The Capital of Culture changed things dramatically. It’s a place where creatives want to live and work. We are going from strength to strength. This place resonates around the world.”
Liverpool’s visitor economy supports approximately 41,000 jobs a year which is expected to increase to 55,000 by 2020. Furthermore, Liverpool is now a top five city break destination and is ranked in the top five retail centres in the UK, thanks in part to Liverpool One, the £1 billion project which opened in 2008. The development provides 1.5 million sq ft of retail space as well as hotels, apartments, a cinema and restaurants. Work on another project, the £200 million Central Village, is already underway. It is due to open in 2013 and will substantially extend the city centre’s leisure and retail core.
An equally important boost for the city is to be found in the “knowledge economy”, a term which refers to Liverpool’s mix of leading universities, multi-national companies, science and innovation parks and specialist research centres such as the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the School of Veterinary Science.
Mr Steinberg says: “Our knowledge economy is one of the growth areas for the future. Consider that there are more people in pharmaceutical production in Liverpool than any other European city. And Liverpool has well recognised strengths in cancer studies. We have the world famous Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Liverpool’s universities produce the highest output of medical graduates for life sciences.”
He adds: “There are plans for a new BioCampus, a scheme driven by the Royal Liverpool Hospital, the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Work will start within a year.
“The city is home to 7,000 financial and professional services companies, including Coutts and Barclays Wealth, and the city is recognised as the second largest wealth management centre in the UK...[added to which] we have a project that will bring 11,500 more jobs in the green economy by 2015. The low carbon economy [such as offshore and onshore wind operations] is another of our growth areas for the future.”
Mr Anderson agrees that the strengthening of the knowledge industry is a key part of Liverpool’s renaissance. Now he is looking forward to another phase of regeneration.
He says: “The city can, I think, rightly be one of the major global destinations once again. That’s the ambition and the intention.”
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