Liverpool clears legal path for 800-home Festival Gardens scheme

Liverpool City Council has signed legal agreements with Urban Splash and igloo, unlocking the developers' 800-home plan for the Festival Gardens site on the city's waterfront. Around 440 homes are earmarked for the first phase.

The deal is a milestone for a plot that has resisted development for nearly four decades. The partners will submit a planning application by the end of 2027 for the 27-acre site, with construction to follow in phases subject to approval.

Who is building what?

Urban Splash and igloo landed the job as preferred partners in August last year, beating rival bids from Muse, Vistry and CERT Property. The two firms will build out parts of the scheme themselves and work alongside delivery partners including Alpha Living, Regenda Homes, TOWN and Starship. Six architects are shaping the plans.

The housing mix is unusually broad. More than 30 house types are planned, ranging from social rent and family homes to retirement living and self-build plots.

Urban Splash co-founder Jonathan Falkingham said: "With Urban Splash and igloo working in partnership, we're combining decades of experience to turn this large-scale regeneration project into a community Liverpool can be proud of."

Why has the site taken so long?

Contamination is the short answer. The former International Garden Festival site was so polluted that earlier development efforts stalled, until Vinci carried out a £53m clean-up.

The council bought the land for £6m in 2015. Earlier proposals envisaged up to 1,500 homes before ambitions were scaled back to the current 800 — a sobering haircut of nearly half, and a reminder that waterfront regeneration in Liverpool runs on long timelines and longer budgets.

What happens next?

Design work and public consultation will now intensify ahead of the planning submission. If approval follows, phased construction begins on a site that has waited since the 1984 garden festival for a second act.

The end-of-2027 planning deadline means the first shovels are still years away. For now, the paperwork is done. That counts as progress here.