Councillor Angela Davies, Cabinet Member for Jobs and Growth, said:

“Creating new homes on brownfield sites has never been more important. Huge Government house-building targets mean we have to take every opportunity to encourage, enable and drive landowners to develop brownfield sites and build the homes Wirral residents’ need.

“We have been clear with every developer and landowner in this borough who has planning permissions in place: we will support you every step of the way, but we need you to build the homes you promised. The Wirral Waters One proposal demonstrates just how serious we are in our determination to get brownfield sites developed.

“This is an ambitious and entrepreneurial move by Wirral Council. We know we need housing to be developed on brownfield sites and at Wirral Waters in particular, to relieve some pressure from our Green Belt. It is also clear these types of schemes are always difficult for private developers to make viable.

“The Council has stepped in and made it work. We have secured national funding to improve local infrastructure, we have worked hand in hand with the developers to make sure the quality of the homes was at the right level, and we have pulled together a solid commercial approach to make sure the financing needed to make the scheme a reality is available.

“This commercial deal also ensures the Council will generate ongoing revenue from the homes which are built, which can be used to invest further into making difficult brownfield regeneration schemes more viable.

“An extensive amount of work has been delivered to get this scheme to where it is today. We now have a major housing development coming forward at Wirral Waters – the first of what we hope will be many such schemes.”