Liverpool City Region has become the first mayoral authority to sign a Place Delivery Agreement with Homes England and the National Housing Bank, giving mayor Steve Rotheram greater influence over housing and regeneration investment.

The partnership will establish a Joint Delivery Unit to align national funding and expertise with local priorities, including social and affordable housing and major regeneration schemes at Liverpool North Docks and Central Station Gateway.

Homes England said the agreements will become its principal model for working with mayoral authorities as devolution progresses, with similar deals expected across England in the coming weeks. Alongside this, the agency will continue to work with local partners in non-mayoral areas.

Liverpool City Region has three key pillars for development:

• Transformative growth – delivering Liverpool North Docks Mayoral Development Corporation and Central Station Gateway, large-scale projects that will transform the city region.  

• Housing pipeline – maintain and enhance the City Region’s housing pipeline to increase the delivery of social, affordable and council homes.  
• Tackling barriers – working together to create the conditions needed to accelerate housing delivery across social, affordable and council home delivery, skills, capacity and issues in industrialised construction, and enhancing place-based investment.   

Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, said: “This gives us a real opportunity to get more council and social homes built, get stalled schemes moving and make sure investment is focused where it can make the biggest difference.

“We’ve got huge ambitions for housing and regeneration across our city region, from the North Docks and Central Station Gateway to projects right across our boroughs. This agreement means we can work with Homes England and the National Housing Bank as one team to get on and deliver them. For me, this is what devolution should be about - giving places more control and then getting on with the job.”

Chair of Homes England, Pat Richie, added: “By strengthening the link between local priorities and national investment, expertise, tools and powers, we can re-wire the system to better support delivery and have a greater impact for the people and places we serve. We look forward to expanding this approach with mayors across England in the months ahead.”