Morgan Sindall Construction and Place North West assembled a roundtable of industry experts from Liverpool and the wider conurbation to discuss what needs to happen to make sure the investment zone is a success – not just for companies within the life sciences sphere, but for everyone across the city region’s boroughs.
Background
Embedding collaboration into every step of the investment zone process is the key to ensuring that the £160m government is due to invest in the city region over the next 10 years can be multiplied many times over.
Various locations across Liverpool City Region, including the Knowledge Quarter and Sci-Tech Daresbury, were given investment zone status last year.
The investment zone aims to turbocharge the city region’s life sciences sector but how can stakeholders ensure that the impact of the initiative ripples out as far as possible?
Participants
Kate Bull, Director of Economic Strategy, Skills and Sustainability at Liverpool City Council
Jenny Martin, pre-construction manager at Morgan Sindall Construction
Laura Sherliker, director at Fairhursts Design Group
Stephen Young, chief executive of Halton Council
John Leake, business growth director at Sci-Tech Daresbury
Rachael Stevens, head of partnerships and external relations at KQ Liverpool
Aileen Jones, executive director of investment and delivery at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Chaired by Dan Whelan, deputy editor of Place North West
Key points
Delivering lab space at scale to support existing and new life sciences companies is a huge part of Liverpool’s investment zone strategy. Without cutting-edge spaces for people to collaborate and carry out vital research, businesses might look elsewhere.
While undoubtedly a vital ingredient, the success of the investment zone will rely on much more than just developing labs for R&D. The initiative must take into account how it will improve the lives and job prospects of residents. Taking a holistic approach to training and employment is the only way to ensure the investment zone benefits everyone.
The aims of the investment zone must complement the wider placemaking strategy for Liverpool and underpin regeneration efforts in areas like the Fabric District and Upper Central. Stakeholders need to break out of their silos in order to achieve this.
That is just a taster of the hour-long discussion. You can hear more highlights from the roundtable from our video above.