Profits generated by a company will cover the costs
Wirral Council’s offices at Alice Ker Square in Birkenhead(Image: Liverpool Echo)
£1m of profits are set to be diverted to cover extra costs of Wirral Council’s new office blocks. The Mallory and Irvine buildings tower above the edge of Birkenhead town centre on Alice Ker Square but currently remain largely empty.
Over the next year, the local authority is expected to use £2m more from the profits generated by its joint venture firm with developer Muse, the Wirral Growth Company. The company was set up to help deliver the regeneration of Birkenhead and was behind the construction of the council’s two new £75m office buildings.
The offices, referred to as the Birkenhead Commercial District, were forward funded by Canada Life Asset Management with the local authority then expected to pay that back over 35 years. The buildings were finished in 2023 and when the plans were approved, the council was expecting to make money by renting the buildings out.
However no new tenants have been announced since the council moved in. To cover the costs, profits from the Wirral Growth Company are being used.
The issue has been seized on by Wirral’s Green Party who have previously raised concerns about the costs though Labour councillors have pointed “the decision was made at a totally different time” arguing “hindsight was a great thing to all of us.” £9.2m was also spent on the offices’ fit out but details of the spend were not made public.
Over the next financial year which started in April 2025 and runs to March 2026, £2m of profits from the company will be used to cover a number of costs the local authority is facing. According to a new regeneration report, half of this, £1m, will “support operation of the Birkenhead Commercial District.”
£500,000 will support the costs of pulling out of plans for a new transport exhibition with the Dock Branch Park. This was an attraction planned for a brand new park along the trainline which runs through central Birkenhead.
£250,000 will be used for the operational costs of the Hythe office block in Wirral Waters while the same amount will be used to support the recruitment of temporary regeneration staff. £2.7m was approved last year to create a “multi-disciplinary team to drive delivery of priority regeneration projects.”
At the time, councillors were asked to approve the funding for new staff due to a risk the council may not be able to deliver a number of different projects before March 2026 as well as any further plans beyond this.
The report said the regeneration programme had expanded due to the council’s success bringing in external investment and government support.
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