Compendium Living was a principal partner in the continuing regeneration of the Lee Valley area of south-east Liverpool. The area includes a number of large ex-local authority housing estates. These estates transferred from Liverpool City Council to registered social landlord Riverside in 2003, and Riverside spent approximately £45m improving the homes. This project was completed in 2020.
Riverside’s investment dramatically improved the social housing and the quality of life for residents. However, the area suffers from a relatively low level of home ownership and a lack of affordable homes for sale. It had higher than average poverty and unemployment. In addition Riverside inherited huge swathes of poorly designed, and under-used open space that added nothing positive to peoples’ lives. With its vibrant community and good local amenities, there is a demand in Lee Valley for affordable homes to buy. Riverside could see that their significant investment in the social housing would not be enough on its own. As a partnership we needed to tackle the lack of homes for sale and poor open spaces, to support the regeneration.
The shared vision for Lee Valley was to:
- Improve the range and attractiveness of the local residential offer in line with the objectives of the Liverpool City Region.
- Improve the quality of place for existing residents and to attract new households.
- Diversify the range and tenure of homes and increase the long term sustainability of the Lee Valley estates.
Compendium Living worked with Riverside, Liverpool City Council and local people to use vacant land that Riverside own in the area to improve the housing mix (both type and tenure) and facilitate better balanced, more mixed income neighbourhoods.
Compendium Living provided a wide range of homes for sale, as well as a small number for shared ownership and affordable rent for Riverside, over a number of sites across Lee Valley between 2011 and 2020. The first of these, our Mill Brook development in Netherley, was completed in 2014. This provided 47 high-quality homes for sale, along with affordable housing and enhanced open space in an area that has suffered from a lack of investment in the past. Our second development in the area was on the site of the former Joseph Williams School which closed in 1997. The first stage of this development was all affordable and completed in 2017. We completed the second stage, our Joseph Williams Place open market sale development of 114 new homes in 2020.
However, this regeneration initiative was not just about housing. The land receipts generated from Compendium Living’s developments, along with other funding from Riverside, was recycled to support much needed investment in environmental and social outcomes. These included:
- Investing approximately £1.5m in a major programme of improvements to the quality of the local environment, to make Lee Valley a more attractive place to live. This included recreational facilities and community spaces that previously suffered from under-investment.
- Providing a dedicated employment and training officer to support residents of Lee Valley to access work, training and experience. From 2010-2106 this initiative helped nearly 200 local people into work, as well as over 100 to gain qualifications.