Liam Robinson was part of a delegation that met with ministers about the regeneration plan
10:01, 03 May 2026
The Clock Tower being demolished at the former Littlewoods Building in 2024(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
The Littlewoods project is in a “better place than it’s been for a very long time”, according to the leader of Liverpool Council following talks with the UK government over how the scheme can be funded. Cllr Liam Robinson said there was “real ministerial interest” in delivery of the scheme on Edge Lane.
The Liverpool Labour chief was part of a delegation that went to Downing Street to present the case for investment into the project. Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, who joined Cllr Robinson, said previously how a cocktail of funding would be needed for the development but stressed he and council colleagues were not going to ministers with a begging bowl.
The council boss said work was now ongoing with officials to sort the finer details. In 2024, new wings on the building were scheduled for a 2026 open date, with the full scheme earmarked for completion in 2027.
Cllr Robinson said: “We went to Downing Street to pitch Littlewoods, a very successful meeting. Our officers and the combined authority’s team have been in pretty constant dialogue with key Whitehall civil servants.
“The fact that we’ve got some civil servants leading on it and we’ve got real ministerial interest in all of this. It’s honestly in a better place than it’s been for a very long time, so I’m so pleased with how we’re pushing on that.”
The process of converting the site into a TV and film studio complex began in 2023 as part of a £70m project. Two new 20,000 square foot studio stages are planned as the first structures to be completed. The plan is that the existing building will be brought back to life and will be used alongside the new studios, as well as existing facilities at The Depot, which opened in 2021.
Remediation work has taken place, and planning permission for the construction process was granted in October 2024. Cllr Robinson set out how a number of funding options would be needed to get the project going in earnest.
A CGI showing how the transformed Littlewoods building could look(Image: Capital&Centric)
He said: “It would require some external funding into it. Some of that would have to come from central government. There are obviously elements that we can put into it locally, and we’re very much prepared to do that, but there could be private sector sources as well that we’d love to tap into. We’re really into the nitty gritty of how we can make that work.”
Regeneration is something Cllr Robinson remains keen to move at pace with. One of the areas that could be looked at is Eldon Grove, situated on the edge of the city centre.
For the last few years, residents have submitted numerous complaints about the derelict state of the site and its impact on the community. It was revealed Liverpool Council owns the freehold to the land itself, and the owners which it referred to previously are the leaseholder, a limited company called Bond Street Liverpool (BSL).
The city leader said it could be a location the authority looks at again in time. He said: “That whole fringe of the northern end of the city centre is a part of the city we do want to improve and significantly address, and Eldon Grove is part of that.
“If you look at the master planning we’re doing for Pumpfields, that whole part of the city that effectively rings the north of the city centre, that at the moment, is massively unutilised; a lot of that is derelict land, a lot of it is quite likely used industrial units. We don’t currently have that linkage between all of those residential communities around the Eldonians or Vauxhall and the city centre, so as part of that, those are some of the things we want to deal with.
Cllr Liam Robinson, leader of Liverpool Council(Image: Andrew Teebay Liverpool Echo)
“It’s also part of the reason we have a mayoral development corporation; we’re able to move forward with how we can deal with those things quicker.” The pace of change may also be coming to the city region politically.
With Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens all facing elections this month, Labour’s stronghold on the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority benches – all six leaders and the mayor wear the red rosette – could be under threat. The LDRS asked Cllr Robinson how he would approach potentially working with a Reform UK council leader.
He said: “Up until 10 o’clock next Thursday, I, alongside everyone in the Liverpool Labour party, will be fighting for every vote that we can in other parts of the city region. Now, you’d expect me to say that, but I also know how good those councils have been during very difficult circumstances.
“I think it’s really important we make that point to people on the doorstep: things are much better than they could have been because you’ve had really good Labour councils delivering on-the-ground services through the nightmares of austerity. From my perspective, I’m genuinely focussing on how we make sure that we’ve still got six labour leaders and a Labour mayor.
“If there’s any political churn, then quite clearly, we’ll work with all of those people for the good of the city region, and the good of the city. That doesn’t mean where we’ve got disagreements, we won’t point that out.”