‘Liverpool has it all’

Business and culture, technology and tourism: Liverpool has it all, delegates heard at Real Asset Media’s UK Investment Outlook: FDI and Capital Flows, which was held in July at Nuveen’s London headquarters.

‘We have a £31.5 bln economy and 49,000 active businesses, that are growing at a faster rate than the rest of the UK,’ said Rachael Bampton-Aiken, Interim lead, Inward Investment Service, Liverpool City Region. ‘Over half of the UK’s trade enters via Liverpool, which is also a tech hub and the top city in the UK for immersive technology’.

The Hartree Centre and the IBM laboratory hosts the UK’s largest supercomputing facility and the plan is for it to be at the centre of a potential tech cluster, while there are advanced manufacturing hubs in the chemical, pharma and manufacturing sectors. 

Rachael Bampton-Aiken, Interim lead, Inward Investment Service, Liverpool City Region

The city spends 4% of output on Research&Development and healthcare and bio-manufacturing are another focus.The Royal College of Physicians has a brand new building in the city centre.

The biggest property potential is to be found in the Knowledge Quarter, Bampton-Aiken said, now known as Upper Central, a 56-acre plot with 2.5 mln sq ft of development opportunities. The site runs from Central Station to Liverpool Science Park and the idea to encourage mixed-use development and create a magnet for the digital, tech and creative industries, creating 7,000 jobs in the process in the coming decade.

Liverpool’s City Council is also developing the £1 bln Paddington Village scheme in the heart of the development zone and it plans to connect the newly-regenerated areas to the retail district in the city centre. 

‘We focus on technology, innovation and the digital future, but also on emerging sectors that deliver clean growth like tidal, wind and hydrogen energy generation,’ she said.

Tourism is a vital element of the package, Bampton-Aiken said: ‘Liverpool is the most visited cultural destination in the UK outside of London. Many are attracted by the Beatles and by football, but we also have Tate Liverpool and a lot else besides’. 

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