Cabinet backs £1.1m child poverty fund and gives green light to North Docks regeneration plan

Cabinet backs £1.1m child poverty fund and gives green light to North Docks regeneration plan

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet convened at Town Hall on the evening of 16 September, addressing a diverse agenda that included efforts to combat child poverty and plans concerning the city’s waterfront development. The session began with the Council Leader highlighting recent positive developments for Liverpool.

Notably, Queen Camilla paid a visit to Spellow Library, where she observed restoration efforts benefiting the local community, engaged with staff and emergency personnel, and contributed additional books complementing her 2024 donation. Furthermore, the Prince and Princess of Wales appeared at Hill Dickinson Stadium last week to inaugurate the On Your Side initiative, aimed at supporting young people in navigating challenging mental health conversations. The Leader also announced a new collaboration with the Queen Elizabeth Trust to advance a vision for Croxteth Park and confirmed that Liverpool will receive devolved funding from the government’s overnight visitor levy, a campaign the city has long supported. Within the city, the council’s apprenticeship program has garnered more than 400 applications from local youth, marking a promising start.

A significant decision made during the meeting focused on addressing child poverty directly. The Cabinet approved an allocation of £1.1 million to Citizens Advice Liverpool, which will provide services through Family Hubs across various neighborhoods. This funding targets three primary goals: increasing family income, reducing the cost of essential goods, and enhancing local support networks for families. The objective is to foster financial stability among families by helping them optimize their earnings and gain access to crucial advice and assistance. Cabinet Member Cllr Harry Doyle emphasized the importance of this support, noting that it arrives at a time when household finances remain under strain.

The meeting also saw Cabinet endorse the creation of a Liverpool North Docks Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), a strategic move expected to accelerate one of the country’s largest regeneration projects. The MDC aims to consolidate investment, partnership efforts, and authority to fast-track development across the North Docks and waterfront area, which is already experiencing significant revitalization. Public consultation over the summer, conducted by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, engaged over 500 residents and organizations, who largely supported the proposal. The plan’s aspirations include expediting development, boosting investment and local business growth, enhancing infrastructure and connectivity, and generating employment opportunities for residents. The proposal will now proceed through additional approval stages with the Combined Authority and Government.

Additional Cabinet approvals included the revised Better Care Fund plan for 2026/27, formulated collaboratively with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board. This plan promotes integrated health and social care services, aiming to help residents manage health conditions within their communities, reduce avoidable hospital visits, and ensure appropriate care upon discharge. Alongside this, progress in the Anfield Village regeneration was marked with the formal transfer of 14 garden and driveway plots to local residents, completing a key element of the wider project that transformed derelict areas into greener, more appealing neighborhoods.

Operational matters were also addressed during the meeting. The Cabinet authorized a new three-year contract with Canon UK for the Council’s Printroom, which managed 7.5 million pages and nearly 2 million mail items in the previous year. This contract is anticipated to generate over £5,000 in annual savings. Additionally, a contract valued up to £700,000 was approved to upgrade network switches at Liverpool Experience Campus, ensuring network security and reliability as existing hardware approaches the end of its support lifecycle. A further agreement was sanctioned to operate the digital system managing memberships, bookings, and payments at the city’s Lifestyles leisure centres for a five-year term starting in 2027. The Cabinet also received a financial update covering month eight of the 2025/26 fiscal year as part of ongoing budget monitoring

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