![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Birkenhead-town-centre-on-December-1.jpg\")
The entrance to the Pyramids shopping centre in the run up to Christmas(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\nWirral’s council leader said the centres had strengthened the local authority’s positionThe entrance to the Pyramids shopping centre in the run up to Christmas(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n
The market value of two shopping centres bought for \u00a310.5m by a Merseyside council have been revealed. The Pyramids and the Grange shopping centres in Birkenhead<\/a> were bought by Wirral<\/a> Council in 2023.<\/p>\n A new Freedom of Information request by the ECHO<\/a> has revealed the council valued the shopping centres at \u00a37.5m in March 2025. This is the same as their value the previous year<\/a> and represents a \u00a33.06m loss from when they were bought.<\/p>\n The Europa Centre, which once housed the town\u2019s Wilko, is now worth \u00a34.1m. This is less than half of what it was bought for with a nearly \u00a34.3m drop in value.<\/a> Birkenhead\u2019s Vue Cinema was valued at \u00a32.75m, a drop of \u00a34.05m from its purchase price. The values of all three properties are similar to their position a year before.<\/a><\/p>\n Alongside those large assets, the council owns a number of industrial sites which have seen an increase in value of nearly \u00a33m overall. For example the Wirral Business Centre and the Holborn Square Industrial Estate have both more than doubled in value.<\/p>\n The ECHO<\/a> was able to get the latest valuations of the council\u2019s properties following a successful appeal over a previous Freedom of Information request.<\/p>\n The council had refused to release the information due to commercial concerns but the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office ruled in the ECHO\u2019s favour.<\/a><\/p>\n When the ECHO<\/a> previously reported on the drop in value for the shopping centres, a Wirral Council<\/a> spokesperson said: \u201cMany of the assets purchased by the council in recent years have been to support specific programmes as part of wider work to bring about improvements to key areas across the borough. The purchases ensure the authority is in a stronger position to deliver the planned improvements.<\/p>\n \u201cIn each case the assets are bought with the expectation they will remain in public ownership for a significant period of time and during this it is accepted that their estimated valuation may vary.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, for many assets their value to the communities around them and for who uses them is not always reflected in market valuations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen council-owned assets are deemed surplus to requirements and either put up for sale or rented out the very best market price is always sought.”<\/p>\n The spokesperson added: “For this reason it was considered a commercial risk to release details of their current valuation, thereby putting the council at a disadvantage to potential purchasers\/renters, but the ICO disagreed and we of course have agreed to comply with their ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n During a recent interview with the ECHO, Wirral Council leader Cllr Paula Basnett, who was elected to the top political role in May, said: \u201cI can\u2019t comment if it was the right decision several years ago,\u201d adding: \u201cI am pleased it is in our ownership now.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a public-owned asset. It does give us control if we want to develop the town centre.<\/p>\n “I think if we want to create that vibrancy [in the town] we need that ownership.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think it has strengthened our position now to be able to deliver our aspiration for the town centre.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wirral’s council leader said the centres had strengthened the local authority’s positionThe entrance to the Pyramids shopping centre…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[2644,748,393,4884,179,12147,16,15,8881,9313,21358],"class_list":{"0":"post-606942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-birkenhead","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-liverpool","13":"tag-regeneration","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wirral","17":"tag-wirral-council","18":"tag-wirral-council-leader"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115648857776714703","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}