Sefton Regeneration & Investment Briefing

Funding, places and delivery. A briefing for the organisations bringing forward homes and regeneration across Bootle, Southport, Crosby and the rest of Sefton.

Dates and decisions to watch

Figures in this briefing cover different programmes, geographies and periods. They should not be added into a single borough investment total.

Regional routes

Sefton is one of six constituent councils of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA), which holds an integrated settlement from 1 April 2026 covering housing, strategic planning, regeneration, skills, transport, environment and public-service reform. [4,5]

Regional routes: see regions/liverpool-city-region.md.

That page covers: the integrated settlement; the LCRCA Brownfield Land Fund and Housing Investment Fund; the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026–2036 first wave and LCRCA's published strategic priorities (60% Social Rent floor; 13 priority places, including Bootle and Southport); the SAHP first-wave regional estimate (MHCLG's published £380m / c.3,100 homes for the Liverpool City Region); the Liverpool North Docks Mayoral Development Corporation; the Spatial Development Strategy; the North-West Construction Technical Excellence College; and The Chest procurement portal (hosted on Proactis ProContract; used by five of the six councils, Liverpool excepted). [regions/liverpool-city-region.md]

Local routes for a Sefton scheme

Places and programmes

Bootle town centre and The Strand — Phase 1 under construction

Sefton Council's flagship town-centre regeneration, and a cornerstone of its Corporate Strategy 2024–27. Phase 1 comprises refurbishment of the former Marks & Spencer unit into a mixed-use "lifestyle destination" (7,700 sq ft food and beverage, 5,300 sq ft exhibition space, 14,300 sq ft community use), plus partial demolition of the shopping complex to create a new public space, Mons Square, and improved links to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Salt & Tar food and events venue. [1,2]

• Demolition works began June 2025; main construction phase due to start early 2026, completing spring 2027. [1]
• Funding: a £20m central government grant plus Liverpool City Region Combined Authority support; Cabinet in July 2025 recommended a supplementary capital estimate of £17.935m, including a further £7.1m of Single Investment Fund (SIF) grant from LCRCA to support delivery, approved by the Combined Authority around 26 September 2025. Council and LCRCA additional capital committed to the centre for enabling and refurbishment works totals more than £18m. [2,3,16]
• As of March 2026 the programme reports 24 education/skills activities delivered as part of its social value commitments. [1]
• Salt & Tar continues in 2026 at alternative Bootle locations during construction. [1]
• Public enquiries: strandfuture@sefton.gov.uk; contact centre 0345 140 0845. [17]

Do not add the £20m grant, the £7.1m SIF award and the £17.935m supplementary estimate together — they overlap (the SIF sum is part of the estimate, and the estimate funds the same phase as the grant).

Southport Town Deal and the Marine Lake Events Centre

Southport's Town Deal was awarded £37.5m by government, of which £33.3m is committed to the Marine Lake Events Centre (MLEC) — the Deal's central scheme, redeveloping the former Southport Theatre site on the promenade. [7]

• MLEC will provide a 103,000 sq ft complex: a 1,200-seat theatre, a 2,400-capacity conference centre, offices, food and beverage space, meeting rooms and production facilities, plus "The Light Fantastic" light-and-water show. Forecast impact: 386 new jobs, 600,000+ additional visitors a year, £30m+ added to the local economy annually. [7]
• Total scheme cost is £106m, and the £73m figure is superseded. Costs rose by £33m against the funding package agreed in 2020, driven by construction inflation, and despite around £12m of value engineering and the change of contractor. Councillors were asked to approve the £33m increase and did so at full Council on 16 July 2026, after which the main contract with VINCI was executed. [35,36]
• Who pays. Of the £106m, Sefton Council's own contribution is £52.7m. The secured public funding is £33m from the government Town Deal and £20m from the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority; the additional £33m is to come from borrowing and further grant from LCRCA and central government. A call for an external audit into the cost increase was rejected in July 2026. [35,36]
• Contractor history: deals with Kier and then GRAHAM fell through; VINCI Building was named main contractor by the council itself, with contract execution expected after full Council in July 2026, on-site start October 2026, a 115-week build programme and opening targeted for early 2029. Major civil engineering works, including a new access ramp from the Upper Promenade, started February 2026 under a separate specialist contractor. [7,8,33]
• Other Southport Town Deal projects include a £10m Town Hall Gardens transformation and a reported £75m Cove Resort on the Esplanade; these are separate, not-fully-verified figures from press reporting. [18]

Sandway Homes and Sefton Home 2030

Sandway Homes Limited, Sefton Council's wholly-owned housing development company, was established in 2018/founded July 2019 to bring forward market and affordable housing on underused, council-owned brownfield land. [13]

• Three schemes: Bartons Close, Crossens (30 homes); Meadow Lane, Ainsdale (48 homes); Buckley Hill Lane / Molyneux Gardens, Netherton (63 homes, £12m, comprising 45 houses and 18 affordable homes) — together its stated 141-home programme. Bartons Close and Meadow Lane are complete bar final highways works; Buckley Hill Lane construction was concluding in spring. [13,19]
• Sefton acquired its first new council housing since 2006 from a Sandway scheme. [20]
• The council is winding down Sandway as it pivots to Sefton Home 2030, an alliance with housing association The Sovini Group (parent of One Vision Housing) to deliver up to 1,000 new social and affordable homes by 2030, pooling council-owned land (including former schools and community sites) with Sovini's development pipeline. First wave: up to 400 homes across eight sites in Bootle, Netherton, Southport, Seaforth and Formby; Sovini is separately progressing a further 600 homes through its own pipeline. The partnership also references apprenticeships with Hugh Baird College and Southport College and jobs support through Sefton@Work. [14,21]
• What "wind-down" actually means. Sefton is not dissolving Sandway. The council was asked to place the company on reduced operations, retaining the company registration while cutting the board and staff back to a level that can oversee completion works and residual defects; the decision went to the council in early December 2025. Two of the three schemes (Bartons Close, Meadow Lane) needed only final highways works, with Buckley Hill Lane concluding in spring. Of Sandway's 141 homes, 49 were affordable and 18 are owned by the council — the first new council homes in Sefton for decades. [13,37]
• Exact date of the formal council resolution: the decision is reported for the week of 1 December 2025 but was not confirmed against a Sefton committee minute for this edition — not verified.

Pride in Place

Sefton has one confirmed Pride in Place neighbourhood: Bootle South, named in MHCLG's phase 2 place selection methodology note as Sefton's single neighbourhood, carrying up to £20m of government investment over ten years. Phase 2 originally covered 169 neighbourhoods across Great Britain (146 in England), alongside phase 1's 75 towns; the delivery guidance now refers to 209 phase 2 places following the tranche named on 20 March 2026. [9,10,31,32]

Pride in Place Impact Fund. Sefton does not appear in the published Annex A lists of authorities receiving the separate £1.5m Impact Fund for either 2025/26 or 2026/27; on the evidence available, Sefton has not been allocated Impact Fund money. [11,12]

No other Sefton neighbourhood (e.g. Southport) was identified in the Pride in Place lists checked. Whether Southport features in any later phase is not verified.

Local funds and project calls

Housing partners and local need

The 150 and the 391 are not competing targets. One is a delivery target, the other is assessed need, and both are current.

So the "gap" is between what the market plus policy is expected to deliver and what the evidence says is needed; it is not an inconsistency between two targets. Actual delivery through Section 106 was 112 affordable homes in 2023/24 and 125 in 2024/25, both below the 150 target and far below the 391 need. [25]

For overall housing, the adopted Local Plan target is 640 net new dwellings a year rising to 694 net a year from 2018, against an 11,520-home plan total; the council's September 2025 monitoring report records average net completions over the previous five years of 801 a year, above target. Overall housing delivery is not Sefton's problem; affordable tenure is. [25]

The Liverpool City Region's January 2026 housing pipeline announcement records Sefton's contribution as 7,723 housing units across 48 sites: 432 units in delivery, with pipeline proposals rising to 795 units in 0–3 years, 2,442 units in 3–5 years and 4,054 units beyond 5 years. These are LCRCA pipeline figures, not a Sefton-adopted target. [26; regions/liverpool-city-region.md,8]

Sefton's emerging Local Plan (consultation closed 18 September 2026) will set the borough's housing, jobs and infrastructure requirement to 2044; the figure has not yet been published. [6]

Delivery and the supply chain

Finding the actual route to work

Sefton Council places tender opportunities through The Chest, the North West's shared local-authority procurement portal, used by five of the six Liverpool City Region councils; Liverpool City Council directs suppliers to the Proactis ProContract platform on which The Chest is hosted. Sefton's own page names Proactis as the council's e-tendering provider and says it will link directly to the new central digital platform under the 2023 Act regime. [regions/liverpool-city-region.md,27] Above-threshold notices also appear on Find a Tender. [28]

Social value: Sefton considers social value on all goods/services tenders over £20,000 and works tenders over £100,000; the Social Value Portal questionnaire is required for tenders over £100,000. [27]

Skills and delivery capacity

Southport College operates a Centre of Excellence for Construction and Trades and offers a Construction T Level; it received a £2.3m grant supporting T Level programmes including Construction, and is named as a partner college for apprenticeships under the Sefton Home 2030 alliance. [18,21]

Hugh Baird College (Liverpool, serving the Liverpool City Region including South Sefton) offers Construction Multi-skills provision (Level 2 and related courses) and is named alongside Southport College as an apprenticeship partner for Sefton Home 2030. Its former South Sefton Campus became the separately branded Sefton Sixth Form College in August 2023. [21,29]

Sefton scheme promoters also sit within the region's North-West Construction Technical Excellence College footprint, hosted by Wigan & Leigh College (see regions/liverpool-city-region.md), and can draw on LCRCA's Construction Skills Service and Skills Bootcamps. [regions/liverpool-city-region.md]

Public contacts

Sources

Research checked on 19 September 2026.

1. Sefton Council, Bootle Strand latest news / programme update · source · source
2. Place North West, "Sefton's Bootle Strand revamp set for £7.1m boost" · source
3. Sefton Council Cabinet, Strand Business Plan agenda item · source
4. Liverpool City Region regional routes page — regions/liverpool-city-region.md, section 1 (constituent councils, integrated settlement) · source
5. Liverpool City Region regional routes page — regions/liverpool-city-region.md, section 1 (integrated settlement value and scope) · source
6. Sefton Council, new Local Plan consultation · source · source
7. Place North West, "Sefton greenlights £73m Southport events centre" and "VINCI to deliver £73m+ Marine Lake Events Centre" · source · source
8. Stand Up For Southport, Marine Lake Events Centre contractor and programme updates · source · source
9. Sefton CVS, "Community stalwart to take up key role in Bootle's Pride in Place programme" and board recruitment · source · source
10. LG Jobs, Independent Neighbourhood Chair – Bootle South recruitment listing · source
11. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2025–26 · source
12. MHCLG, Pride in Place Impact Fund grant determinations 2026–27 (Annex A reviewed; Sefton not listed) · source
13. Insider Media / Place North West, Sandway Homes schemes and wind-down · source · source
14. Place North West / Sovini Group / Sefton Council, Sefton Home 2030 · source · source · source
15. Liverpool City Region regional routes page — regions/liverpool-city-region.md, section 2 (Brownfield Land Fund) · source
16. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, "£7m investment set to unlock transformation of Bootle Strand shopping centre" · source
17. Sefton Council, Bootle Strand "Get in touch" · source
18. Liverpool City Region Destination Partnership / Southport College, Southport Town Deal projects and T Level grant · source · source
19. Sefton Council / My Sefton News, Sandway Homes construction progress · source
20. Stand Up For Southport, "Sefton acquires first new homes to be used as council housing since 2006 from Sandway Homes" · source
21. OneVision Housing / Sovini Group, "Partnership delivers 1000 affordable homes for Sefton" · source
22. Sefton Council democracy portal, UK Shared Prosperity Fund update · source
23. Sefton Council, UKSPF Digital Connectivity Grants round six · source
24. Sefton Council, Housing Strategy 2022–2027 · source · source
25. Sefton Council, Housing Strategy 2022–2027 Action Plan and Monitoring Report · source
26. Sefton Conservative Federation, "Housing plans for Sefton and the Liverpool City Region" (LCR Housing Pipeline, January 2026) · source
27. Sefton Council, Contract Procedure Rules and social value thresholds · source
28. Find a Tender service · source
29. Hugh Baird College / Sefton Sixth Form College · source · source
30. Sefton Council, Contact the Council · source
31. MHCLG, Pride in Place programme delivery guidance (updated 17 September 2026; phase 2 plan deadline 30 November 2026, boundary changes 17 July 2026, phase 2 funding profile and 63/37 capital-revenue split) · source
32. MHCLG, Pride in Place Programme: phase 2 place selection methodology note (Sefton: 1 neighbourhood, Bootle South) · source
33. Sefton Council, "VINCI Building announced as Main Contractor for Marine Lake Events Centre" · source
34. Sefton Council, Affordable and Supported Homes Supplementary Planning Document (section 6.1: the 2019 Strategic Housing Market Assessment identifies a net affordable requirement of approximately 7,432 homes over 2017–2036, about 391 a year, with Southport the highest single need at 226 a year) · source
35. Place North West, "Extra £33m needed for Southport's Marine Lake Events Centre", 17 June 2026 · source
36. Construction News, "Events venue cost rises to £106m despite switch to cheaper contractor", 19 June 2026, and "Call rejected for external audit into ballooning cost of Southport events venue", 21 July 2026 · source · source
37. Place North West, "End of the road for Sandway Homes", 2 December 2025 · source

Research notes

Verified: Bootle Strand Phase 1 funding structure and programme dates; Marine Lake Events Centre contractor appointment (VINCI), programme and Town Deal funding split (£33.3m of £37.5m); Sandway Homes' three named schemes and its pivot to the Sefton Home 2030 alliance with The Sovini Group; Bootle South's status as Sefton's one confirmed Pride in Place neighbourhood, its up-to-£20m headline and its appointed independent Chair; Sefton's absence from both published Pride in Place Impact Fund Annex A lists; Sefton's UKSPF allocation figure (£7,451,277); Sefton's Housing Strategy 2022–2027 target of 150 net affordable homes a year against a Cabinet-reported need of 391 a year.

Open / not verified: whether Bootle South's Pride in Place Plan has in fact been submitted; the exact date of the council resolution placing Sandway Homes on reduced operations; Sefton's new Local Plan housing number for the period to 2044 (not yet published following the 18 September 2026 consultation close); current live schemes for One Vision Housing and Onward Homes specifically within Sefton.

Blocked/limited sources: no site returned a 403/blocked response requiring the ScrapingBee fallback in this research pass; the MHCLG Impact Fund pages were read via WebFetch successfully. Several Sefton committee/agenda pages (modgov.sefton.gov.uk) were identified via search but not individually fetched for full report text; treat committee-level financial detail (e.g. the £17.935m Strand supplementary estimate) as press-reported rather than primary-document-confirmed pending direct review of the Cabinet report.

Verification 19 Sep 2026

• Pride in Place phase status resolved: Bootle South is named in MHCLG's phase 2 place selection methodology note as Sefton's single neighbourhood, so the phase 2 Pride in Place Plan deadline of 30 November 2026 binds and boundary changes were due 17 July 2026. Previously marked "not verified". [31,32]
• Pride in Place funding detail resolved from the delivery guidance: 63% capital / 37% revenue for phase 2; £150,000 early revenue 2025/26; £135,000 revenue and £117,604 capital in 2026/27; £138,462 second revenue payment on approval of Chair, board and boundary; £1.36m on Plan approval in FY 2027/28. Previously "not verified". [31]
• SAHP first-wave national figure not carried in this brief; the regional page figure was corrected (33 partners; partner table sums to £9,584.1m and 73,617 homes). The regional page also now carries MHCLG's published SAHP first-wave regional estimate for the Liverpool City Region (£380m / c.3,100 homes, from MHCLG's release of 24 August 2026) — a regional estimate, not a Sefton figure.
• "All six councils use The Chest" corrected to five; Sefton's own page confirms The Chest and names Proactis as its e-tendering provider, and sets social value thresholds of £20,000 for goods and services and £100,000 for works.
• Marine Lake Events Centre citation upgraded from trade press to Sefton Council's own announcement: VINCI Building as main contractor, on site October 2026, 115-week programme, opening early 2029. [33]
• Sefton's absence from both Pride in Place Impact Fund determinations re-confirmed directly against the 2025–26 (signed 29 September 2025) and 2026–27 (signed 8 April 2026) Annex A lists. [11,12]
• Re-confirmed unchanged: the 150-a-year strategy target against the 391-a-year Cabinet-reported need, left unreconciled as before; the LCRCA pipeline figure of 7,723 units across 48 sites; Southport Town Deal £37.5m with £33.3m to MLEC.

Verification pass 2, 19 Sep 2026

• Marine Lake Events Centre cost resolved and the £73m figure retired. The current cost is £106m, a £33m increase on the package agreed in 2020, approved by full Council on 16 July 2026, after which the VINCI Building main contract was executed. Sefton's own contribution is £52.7m; the secured public money is £33m Town Deal and £20m LCRCA, with the extra £33m from borrowing and further LCRCA and government grant. About £12m of value engineering and the contractor change did not offset construction inflation. A call for an external audit into the cost increase was rejected in July 2026. Previously carried as "£73m vs £106m+, not reconciled". [35,36]
• The 150 vs 391 question resolved — they are different kinds of figure. The 150 is the council's own delivery target in Housing Strategy 2022–2027 action HN5, expressly tied to Local Plan Policy HC1's 30% affordable requirement on schemes of 15 dwellings or more, running annually 2023 to 2027. The 391 is assessed need from the 2019 Strategic Housing Market Assessment — a net affordable requirement of about 7,432 homes over 2017–2036 — carried into the Affordable and Supported Homes SPD adopted May 2023. Both are current; neither supersedes the other. Southport alone accounts for 226 of the 391, with Bootle (−17) and Netherton (−28) showing negative net need — a materially useful distribution the brief did not previously carry. [24,25,34]
• Actual affordable delivery added from the council's own September 2025 monitoring report: 112 affordable homes through Section 106 in 2023/24 and 125 in 2024/25.
• Overall housing figures added, which also closes the pipeline-vs-target question. The adopted Local Plan target is 640 net new dwellings a year, 694 net a year from 2018, against an 11,520-home plan total; average net completions over the previous five years were 801 a year, above target. The LCRCA pipeline figure of 7,723 units across 48 sites is a pipeline, not a target, and is not comparable with either. Previously listed as an unreconciled open item. [25]
• Sandway Homes clarified. The council was asked in December 2025 to place Sandway on reduced operations — company registration retained, board and staff cut back to oversee completions and residual defects — not to dissolve it. Of the 141 homes, 49 were affordable and 18 are council-owned, the first new council homes in Sefton for decades. The brief previously described this simply as "winding it down". [13,37]
• Re-confirmed unchanged: Bootle South as Sefton's single phase 2 Pride in Place neighbourhood with a 30 November 2026 plan deadline; Sefton's absence from both Impact Fund determinations; Chair Dave Smith; the Southport Town Deal at £37.5m with £33.3m to MLEC; the Sefton Home 2030 alliance figures.
• Still open after a further search on 19 September 2026: whether Bootle South has submitted its Plan (no Sefton committee report found); the exact Sandway resolution date; Sefton's Local Plan housing number to 2044; One Vision Housing and Onward scheme-level activity in Sefton.

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