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New partnership
for 2,500 homes
THE MAYOR of Liverpool has
begun a search for a new housing partner who can help him deliver
1,500 new homes for the City, and bring a further 1,000 back into
use.
The Mayoral Cabinet has today, Friday 8 March, approved plans for
the City to seek a partner, to support the delivery of new and
refurbished homes in Liverpool. It's the latest part of the
Mayor's plans to work with the private sector to drive up the
quality of housing in Liverpool.
Liverpool has seen a substantial increase in interest from potential
developers, Registered Housing Providers and voluntary groups who
want to work with the City on housing schemes. The new initiative
will give one or more organisations the opportunity to bid to become
an official partner of the Council.
Mayor Joe Anderson said:- "Improving our housing stock is one
of my top priorities, but it's vital, at a time when we are facing
huge economic challenges, that we work creatively with other
organisations from the public and private sector. Forming an
official housing partnership with a private or public sector
organisation will bring huge benefits for our City. It will help us
help us unlock new investment opportunities and enable us to pool
our resources and share expertise. As such, it will play a major
role in my pledge to deliver 5,000 new homes, bring 1,000 properties
back into use and create and safeguard local jobs. Work is already
underway at more than 30 sites across Liverpool to deliver thousands
of new and refurbished homes. I'm now looking forward to us pressing
ahead with bringing our new partner on-board, so we can build on
this momentum and begin to collaborate on delivering a range of new
and exciting housing projects for our City."
Through the partnership, the City Council will prioritise the
creation and safeguarding of jobs for local people and will work
with the partner organisation, through the City's 'Liverpool in
Work' programme, to ensure supply chain, labour and skills are
sourced locally wherever possible.
The partnership would aim to build on the City's housing growth in
recent years, with work on 2,000 new homes currently on-site across
the City. Proposals from bidders which require the Council to
underwrite investment will be rejected.
Liverpool City Council's Cabinet Member for Housing, Councillor Ann
O'Byrne, said:- "This is an exciting initiative, and yet
another great example of how we working with public, private,
community and voluntary sector partners to rejuvenate housing in
this City. We are already achieving great things, and this new
partnership will help build on this work, giving us the ability to
drive forward housing renewal and improve our neighbourhoods at a
faster pace."
The City Council hopes to award the contract in July 2013.
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Bishop of
Liverpool welcomes Merseyside woodland plans
THE Bishop of Liverpool has
welcomed plans to create more woodlands in Merseyside and North
Cheshire, and urged people to have their say on the proposals.
The newly updated Mersey Forest Plan aims to plant millions more
trees in the local area, with long-term aspirations to plant urban
trees, copses, and larger woodlands and improve their management for
people and wildlife.
The Rt. Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, said:- "Our
forests are nature's playground for the adventurous, pleasure for
the curious, hospital for the stressed, cathedral for the spiritual,
and livelihood for the entrepreneur. There is no finer example of
this than The Mersey Forest's achievements of the past 20 years.
I have no doubt this success will continue, and would encourage
people to have their say on this new plan for the decades ahead."
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The plan has been created by The Mersey Forest Partnership which has
planted 9 million trees since 1991. The partnership is made up of
seven local authorities, the Forestry Commission, Natural England,
Environment Agency and local communities and businesses.
The draft document can be found at:-
merseyforest.org.uk/plan, where residents can see
proposals for their local area on an interactive map, and put
forward their views until the end of April. Printed copies of the
plan are also in libraries in Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton,
St.Helens, Warrington and northern areas of Cheshire West and
Chester (call:- 01925 816217 for further details).
The Bishop's comments follow hot on the heels of a new national
approach to forestry unveiled by the government in January. This
confirmed that England's public woodlands will be held in trust for
the nation, and saw the government endorse the vast majority of
recommendations made by the Independent Panel on Forestry, chaired
by the Bishop. The Panel was set up in 2010 following an uproar over
plans to sell many public woodlands and forests.
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