eu&merseyside2000 to 2008

the objective one programme

NOT SINCE THE HEADY DAYS OF THE SIXTIES HAS MERSEYSIDE BUZZED LIKE IT DOES NOW.

Contents

04_ Regaining Our Confidence06_ The first Objective One Programme: 1994-199914_ Objective One From 2000 to 200816_ Following The Vision24_ The Story So Far - Growing Business30_ The Story So Far - Developing People36_ The Story So Far - Investing in Places and Communities50_ More To Come52_ The Future

the objective one programme

CreditsWords and design_Paver Smith, Liverpool_www.paversmith.co.ukPrinting_Synergy, Wirral_www.synergy4print.co.uk

The Programme would like to thank the many organisations, individuals and photographers that helped in the production of this publication.

Printed on Hello Silk which is FSC accredited. Sourced from fully sustainableforests managed to the highest social and environmental standards.

This document can be made available in alternative formats. Please call: 0151 224 6300.

NOT SINCE THE HEADY DAYS OF THE SIXTIES HAS MERSEYSIDE BUZZED LIKE IT DOES NOW.

THE LIVERPOOL CITY REGION HAS REGAINED ITS CONFIDENCE AND IS STRENGTHENED TO FACE THE NEW ECONOMIC CHALLENGES.

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Regaining our confidence

Not since the heady days of the sixties has Merseyside buzzed like it does now. The Liverpool city region has regained its confidence and is strengthened to face the new economic challenges.

Some have forgotten – perhaps out of convenience – that Merseyside’s economy was in serious trouble. And with that economic decline came serious social problems that all too often ended up under the harsh glare of the media.

A roll call of the statistics from 1994 (just before the first Objective One Programme started) makes for grim reading:

----- Unemployment 70% higher than the EU average----- Economic output per head (as measured by GDP) 74%

of the EU average----- 40% of all unemployed had either never worked or not

worked in the previous 10 years----- Some communities blighted by unemployment above 40%----- 28% of school leavers had no qualifications----- Liverpool Airport handled fewer than half a million

passengers a year

Fourteen years of EU Objective One investment, in partnership with the public, private and voluntary sectors, have transformed the situation. It took a while, but a focus on investing in key, strategic priorities began to pay off, creating confidence and unlocking further investment.

Bit by bit, Merseyside began to claw its way back up the league tables.

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The Tall Ships visit in July 08 brought hundreds of thousands of visitors and £60 million to the Merseyside economy.

Turning around a large, complex urban economy with major social problems is – to state the obvious – a challenge.

The first Objective One programme began life as signs of economic confidence were re-emerging, but against an unpromising background. Little or no institutional investment, a poor reputation, a crumbling infrastructure, poor workforce skills and early signs of a technological revolution afoot meant that this wasn’t a place for the faint-hearted. Hard facts meant hard choices, but those early priorities proved to be the right ones.

Overleaf are some early examples:

The first Objective One Programme:

1994 - 1999

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In the early nineties visitors walked out of Lime Street station to be greeted by, well, a mess. Acres of derelict and semi-derelict land and buildings, blighted by traffic and with little economic function.

Objective One provided the necessary funding to complete the Queen Square masterplan, supporting investment in a first class hotel and new public spaces. This kick-started a rolling programme of investment in existing and new hotel stock that continues to this day, enabling Liverpool to compete in key business and leisure travel markets.

Today, the area is an award-winning and fitting gateway to a revitalised city centre.

Queen Square

01_Acres of temporary car-parking blighted a key gateway to the city region for much of the 1980s and 90s.

02_Today Queen Square accommodates hundreds of jobs and provides a fitting environment for local people, visitors and businesses to enjoy.

Liverpool’s southern gateway, around the industrial and dockside suburbs of Speke and Garston, were a key early priority. Its airport known affectionately as ‘the chicken shed’ and a crumbling economic infrastructure made for a bleak introduction to Liverpool. But the areas potential - based on an excellent location, existing industry and massive amounts of available land – was spotted by planners early on.

The Speke Garston Development Company was established, with Objective One a major funder and supporter. Two early priorities for the area – the establishment of a large, modern business park on the site of the former Speke airfield, and support for the redevelopment of what was to become known as Liverpool John Lennon Airport – set the pace and tone for the wholesale transformation of the area. The momentum established remains and new developments continue to come to the market.

Today, 650 employers and 15,000 jobs tell a powerful story about the impact Objective One has had on the area.

Speke & Garston

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03_Abandoned for more than a decade the grade 2* listed Art Deco terminal lay forlorn and decaying.

04_Today the terminal building provides 4-star hotel facilities for one of the regions premier business parks.

Grand Victorian buildings that once reflected the town’s status as the world’s leading glass manufacturing centre stood empty. Swathes of land lay abandoned and un-usable thanks to centuries of industrial contamination. Economic retrenchment and new technology had taken their toll on manufacturing jobs and the town needed to diversify its economic base quickly. Investment in land reclamation, better public spaces and new infrastructure helped to create today’s thriving hub for hi-tec and leisure businesses, which tells you of the progress that has been made.

St. Helens

01_Music festivals in Victoria Square St Helens attract concert goers from across the region.

02_Investment in quality public spaces has helped transform perceptions of St Helens.

03_Birkenhead’s award-winning bus station.

04_Major investment in a new Merseyrail station in the town centre.

A similar transformational investment took place across the river in Birkenhead. The town centre was failing to punch its weight. Investment by Objective One in stunning transport infrastructure – an award winning bus station and new underground railway station – brought new appeal to the town as a shopping destination for Wirral’s 350,000 residents and unlocked strategic investment by commercial landlords.

Birkenhead

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1994-1999

The elegant Victorian resort of Southport had also lost some of its lustre and was struggling to remain competitive. The team at Objective One, working with Sefton metropolitan borough council, saw the strategic value of a revitalised pier as the first step towards a long-term programme of re-positioning the town as a classic resort and invested almost £1m in realising this vision.

Southport

01_Admiring the pier in England’s classic resort.

02_A vibrant mix of the old and the new in Southport

03/04_Land reclamation and preparation attracted new investment and thousands of jobs to Knowsley.

Factory closures during the 1970’s and 80’s had left a legacy of vacant and derelict land across one of the region’s economic power-houses, Knowsley Industrial Park. Objective One investment in land reclamation, better access and support for developers helped to attract companies such as QVC, which has invested £85m in its 600,000sq ft Knowsley operation creating 2,500 jobs.

Knowsley Industrial Park

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1994-1999

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ObjectiveOnefrom

2000 to 2008

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There were many more such specific and carefully thought-through targets set against four priorities:

------------- developing business------------- developing people------------- developing locations------------- developing communities

Sustainability was seen as key: these were interventions that had to stick. Long-term gain was a guiding principle and embedded within the four priorities were three cross-cutting themes that were vital to deliver on the programme’s wider objectives:

------------- Environmental sustainability – to protect and enhance the environment for future generations

------------- Equal opportunities and social inclusion – to stimulate a community where everyone is treated equally, diversity is celebrated and everyone’s talents are developed and utilised

------------- Information and communication technologies – to ensure that Merseyside is at the leading edge of technological change, harnessing the power of the digital age for the good of its citizens and businesses

Delivering on these three cross-cutting themes was vital if the programme’s vision to create ‘A world class city-region that attracts people to live, work, invest and visit’ was to be achieved. So every project had to deliver a minimum standard of ICT, equal opportunities & social inclusion and environmental sustainability.

Merseyside had turned its corner but needed to accelerate on to the straight and the second programme provided that impetus. Confidence was beginning to show itself across the economy; school leavers were beginning to see that there were future prospects for them; and outside investors turned up unannounced, having heard on the grapevine that Merseyside was a place that could deliver good returns.

The future was beginning to look much brighter...

The first round of Objective One funding was a success, but such was the scale of the structural problems facing Merseyside’s economy that the job was far from done. Clearly targeted priorities had begun to strengthen confidence in the area, improving its image and unlocking private sector investment, but maximising the area’s potential required further significant sums of money. The second Objective One programme was devised to take the economy up another step.

A glance at the core issues demonstrated the need for continued EU support. Merseyside still suffered, relatively, from low economic activity rates; business survival rates were poor and their overall productivity low; unemployment was still unacceptably high and household incomes and educational attainment still too polarised. To add to this, the media still exhibited a well-worn scepticism towards what Merseyside had to offer the country.

Looked at another way, the scale of the second programme’s ambition highlighted the potential for further growth – and with that major social and economic gains.

Its challenging targets were:

------------- An extra £900 million of economic output as measured by net value added

------------- 34,000 new full time jobs (net)------------- 12,500 residents of the region’s most disadvantaged

neighbourhoods in work------------- Assistance for 4,800 businesses in key sectors------------- Creating more than 7m sq m of commercial and industrial

floor space------------- Remediating 300 hectares of derelict and brownfield land

Breakdown of programme investment

Image (£15,615,927)

Infrastructure (£160,403,687)

Business Development (£245,215,596)

Skills Development (£94,313,909)

Management (£11,917,744)

Investment in disadvantaged communities (Pathways)(£178,814,019)

Strategic Investment Areas (£132,890,284)

Community Capacity (£4,88,4,423)

Employment Initiatives (£89,238,298)

Achievements since 2000

1,802 projects funded

£929 million of EU funds invested

39,653 jobs created

15,768 business start-ups assisted

24,589 small and medium size firms assisted

333,209 adult training places supported

62,770 school-age training places supported

99,588 trainees accessing employment

621,988 sqm floor space created or improved

331 hectares of derelict land reclaimed

A committed partnership of the European Union, UK Government and local stakeholders from the voluntary, private and public sectors adopted a vision for the programme, which was to create ‘A world class city-region that attracts people to live, work, invest and visit’. The vision required a clear and determined approach if it was to be achieved.

The complexity of the challenge facing the Objective One team and its partners sometimes translated into a complex administrative infrastructure.

Like any organisation, lessons were learnt along the way and over time the programme became more streamlined and efficient as responsive infrastructure was put in place.

Following the vision

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We thought of the programme as ‘managed’ not ‘administered’, with a more transparent project assessment procedure and a planned and sustained communications programme to all stakeholders.

Clear and strong programme leadership and a firm commitment to planning and engaging with stakeholder groups and delivery partners provided a cohesive and effective backdrop to the second programme that yielded significant early results. Better corporate governance, too, meant a tighter, more responsive executive team that drove the programme forward with purpose.

The private sector responded enthusiastically to this new approach and to the rapidly changing confidence in what

Merseyside stood for, could deliver and might yield in the longer-term. They shared our focus on investing in quality and there was a broad embracing of the cross-cutting themes of environmental sustainability, equality & inclusion and new technologies. Progress was rapid and widely-felt.

Projects such as the National Wildflower Centre in Knowsley, the Mersey Forest initiative and the Mersey Waterfront Regional Park proved hugely popular; against the backdrop of a rapidly improving economy people saw the value of investing in quality of life infrastructure that would, in turn, help attract new investment to the region.

01_Celebrations at the new £23m Pier Head canal link, which was made possible with a £9m EU investment.

02_Mersey Waterfront Regional Park’s ‘Pride in Our Promenades’ provided new facilities for everyone to enjoy at Otterspool and Egremont.

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The Vision

01_Trainee heating engineers at the EU-funded Construction Skills Centre in North Liverpool.

02_Training future Olympians at the Greenbank Academy.

03_Career guidance for young people.

04_Breaking down the digital divide.

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Equal Opportunities and Social Inclusion was embedded throughout the programme because it was recognised as a fundamental requirement for the economic regeneration and competitiveness of the region, without which the programme could not succeed.

The focus was on three areas:

------------- Gender Equality - To reduce vertical and horizontal segregation by gender in employment and to reduce the gender pay gap

------------- Access - To develop a modern economy and environment, accessible to all

------------- Social Inclusion - To develop an inclusive society and strengthen social cohesion

Following the vision:

Equal opportunities & Social inclusion

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A glance at the statistics below shows that much was achieved in these vital areas:

------------- 102,482 women received training------------- 20,042 women accessed employment------------- 7,916 women were helped to start a business------------- 4,528 people with disabilities accessed employment------------- 2,911 minority ethnic people accessed employment------------- 2,657 lone parents accessed employment------------- 2,270 substance misusers entered employment------------- 3,143 people who had been unemployed for more that

3 years accessed employment

01_ICT in action.

02_The ICT Investment Fund helped put local firms at the cutting edge of ICT.

03_EU investment in Merseybroadband brought the internet to hundreds of local firms.

04_St Paul’s Square office development in Liverpool city centre – one of the many new buildings equipped with state of the art ICT connectivity.

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Information and communications technologies (ICT) have transformed the way we learn, entertain ourselves and do business. Which is why we ensured that all of the projects we invested in incorporated the right ICT training or infrastructure to ensure that learners, employees and businesses had what they needed to compete in a digital world.

ICT achievements:

------------- 241 new ICT companies

------------- 1,015 companies adopted new e-business practices

------------- 3000 extra companies adopted broadband connectivity

------------- 250 people gained professional ICT qualifications

------------- 38 voluntary organisations developed or exploited digital content

Following the vision:

Information and CommunicationsTechnologies

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Environmental sustainability achievements included:

------------- 331 hectares of derelict land reclaimed------------- 627 hectares of natural habitat created or enhanced------------- 22 habitat protection plans------------- 26 historic structures restored or improved------------- 181 hectares of woodland planted------------- 40 km of cycleways created or improved------------- 1,405,617 kwh of energy generated from renewable sources------------- 252 km of new public transport routes------------- 92 new environmental businesses established------------- 4,225 people trained in environmental management

As a cross cutting theme, the principle of environmental sustainability underpinned all programme investments. Projects such as MERBEN helped to improve the environmental performance of businesses across Merseyside, with over 5,700 firms developing an environmental policy. New buildings were required to generate 10 per cent of their energy requirements on-site from renewable resources such as wind turbines and ground source heat pumps. Waste minimisation was a priority and more than 5,200 organisations implemented waste reduction initiativesMassive investment was also made in public transport, which was subsequently supported by efforts to encourage its use in all organisations receiving funding.

Following the vision:

EnvironmentalSustainability

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01_Broadening ecological diversity and creating new habitats – Landlife’s Bluebell recovery project.

02_Photo-voltaic panels on the roof of the North West Museum of Road Transport in St Helens.

03_Green power generation at Liverpool South Parkway.

04_Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre is one of the greenest venues of it’s kind in Europe.

05_The Southport eco-visitor centre.

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Such success has been against a backdrop of the continually improving image of Merseyside as a business destination. Objective One’s investment in The Mersey Partnership’s promotional and inward investment programmes - almost £20 million of EU support since 2000 - has helped ensure that key opinion-formers and decision-makers continue to receive a regular diet of positive news stories about the region’s economic strengths, whilst Liverpool’s year as European Capital of Culture 2008 – backed by £15 million of EU support since 2003 - has yielded huge volumes of national and international coverage (estimated to have been worth £200 million) focusing on the area’s quality of life as well as the immeasurable enjoyment and pride it brought to local people.

This image boost has, of course, delivered an economic upside, most notable in booming hotel occupancy levels, which are now amongst the highest in the country. This is even more remarkable when considered against the massive increase in the number of hotel rooms - In 2000 the city centre offered 2118 rooms in 20 hotels; by 2010 there will be 5000 rooms in 42 hotels.

The cultural, retail and leisure sectors are also reporting record turnover.

Objective One has provided considerable financial support to the region’s key cultural partners, enabling them to host a number of block-busting shows, events and exhibitions that have exceeded all forecasts in terms of visitor numbers.

Objective One began its programme on Merseyside against a grim background of low levels of business confidence, business formation, business survival, productivity, innovation and growth. In short, an economy still failing after decades of gradual decline.

As the key statistics illustrate, 14 years of Objective One investment have helped transform the picture.

It should be no surprise that we chose to focus on growing businesses in the region; what did take people aback was our strategic focus. We recognised at the outset that we needed to focus on those interventions and business sectors that offered us the greatest long-term return.

The Story so far…

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We developed an infrastructure of funding and training resources, through our partners such as the Learning & Skills Council Greater Merseyside, Business Link for Greater Merseyside and Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF). Initiatives such as the groundbreaking SkillWorks programme, The Seed Fund and the various loan and equity products developed by MSIF provide a complete toolkit for businesses to thrive.

Stimulating enterprise and boosting the number of small businesses - then helping them grow through competitive funding and support - was the cornerstone of our investment strategy.

Our sector development strategy saw us focus on higher value-added sectors such as life sciences, the creative industries and ICT purposely to ensure long-term growth in earnings, productivity and GVA. Developments such as the National Biomanufacturing Centre and Liverpool Science Park have both been an outstanding success and demand for their services and business space continues to grow.

Objective One’s investment of £59.5 million in Merseyside Special Investment Fund (MSIF) and its Seed Fund has so far helped 880 companies to start up or expand, creating 4486 jobs and generating £334 million of gross value added (net).

Growing business

01_MERBEN helped this Wirral company to improve its bottom-line through better environmental performance.

02_Delivering world class venues and events - La Princesse pays a visit to ACC Liverpool.

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Objective One support for European Capital of Culture helped to deliver:

15 m 15 million visits to cultural venues and events

1 m 1 million hotel beds sold

3.5 m 3.5 million people visited the city for the first time

5.2 m 5.2 million people attended the 7,000 individual ’08 events

800m £800 million generated for the local economy

£929MILLION OF EU FUNDS INVESTED IN 1,802 PROJECTS--

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24,589SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE COMPANIES ASSISTED--

The lead up to Capital of Culture year saw a significant shift in the attitude of many Merseyside businesses to workforce training and skills.

There was a widespread recognition that many suppliers in the tourism and hospitality sectors in particular needed to raise their game when it came to service standards and skill-levels and, if take-up of the Objective One-funded Skillworks programme is indicative, this honesty seems to have spread throughout the economy.

Skillworks has been a resounding success, investing £22m of Objective One funds, matched by £14.7m of private sector cash, in 5698 companies and 23,221 employees. Take-up of the next tranch of the programme, and its sister Train to Gain programme, suggests Merseyside employers have been converted to the merits of workforce investment.

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01_A sharp focus on life sciences and other key business sectors.

02_Cutting-edge skills in Birkenhead.

03_Liverpool Science Park – nurturing high-value businesses of the future.

04_Business mentoring in practice.

05_Bringing local and global benefits – new world class research facilities at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

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39,653NEW JOBS---

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Investing in Merseyside’s existing and emerging economic and research strengths was a priority for the programme. The ten largest investments in the new ‘knowledge economy’, which will help to stimulate business innovation and creativity for decades to come, were:

EU investment Total costThe Seed Fund £20m £27.6m

National Bio-manufacturing Centre and Access Fund £10.87m £28.4m

Liverpool Science Park £11.48m £27.76m

Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (CITD) £11.11m £30.20m

Liverpool Innovation Park (Digital Academy) £6.72m £19.99m

Design Academy £3.59m £27.15m

Merseyside BioScience Centre and Business Incubator £3.5m £14.96m

Centre for Materials Discovery £2.47m £7.51m

AIMES Business Development Institute £2.09m £5.25m

LJMU Engineering Development Centre £2.39m £6.55m

Developing the knowledge economy

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It is often overlooked that 40 per cent of Merseyside is rural and that rural businesses make a valuable contribution to its economy. That is why Objective One invested £3.9 million in rural businesses through the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee (EAGGF) structural fund.

A total of 52 projects were supported, including:

------------- £17,000 for a new livery yard for a Wirral farm------------- A new fish breeding centre at a Sefton farm

received £50,000------------- £42,000 helped to improve carrot production and

processing at a St Helens farm------------- A knowsley farm received £5,000 towards a new

soil segregator

24,589SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE COMPANIES ASSISTED---

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Objective One provided support for Merseyside’s small fishing and fish processing industries through the FIFG (Financial Instrument for Fisheries Guidance) structural fund.

£150,000 of FIFG funding was invested in seven projects, including £68,000 to upgrade processing and canning equipment at a shellfish company in Prescot, Knowsley and £18,000 in three projects with the Sea Fish Authority aimed at improving safety in an industry that is officially recognised as the most dangerous in Britain.

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01_New woodland in St Helens - EU investment in the Mersey Forest helped create 181 hectares of new woodland in Merseyside.

02_Public Art at Southport Seafront.

03_A new livery yard in St Helens.

04_With 220 acres dedicated to growing carrots, EU investment in new processing equipment has helped this family farm in St Helens to supply to wholesale markets and food processing companies across the UK.

Supporting the rural economy and the fishing industry

Cultivating Rural Renaissance

Support for the fishing and fish processing industries

333,209TRAINING PLACES FOR ADULTS--

01_Looking forward to a bright future.

02_Tuning in to a career in radio in St Helens.

03_Laying the foundations for a career in floor-fitting in Knowsley.

It is people – and their skills, energy, talent and focus – that build and sustain an economy. So at Objective One they have always been central to our strategy.

Since 2000 almost £285 million of European Social Fund (ESF) monies has been invested in 1,260 projects to develop the skills of the people of Merseyside and to encourage and enable them to embrace life-long learning.

And, as with other strands of the programme, our interventions have been highly strategic, aimed at tackling deep-rooted issues that undermine Merseyside’s competitiveness. This has

been complemented by major physical investments at colleges across Merseyside, including Knowsley Community, Southport, St. Helens, Wirral Metropolitan and Liverpool Community or through investment in training and skills programmes with local employers.

Objective One recognised that the whole community needed to be engaged – not least through the skills agenda - for the areas potential to be reached. Our investment in projects such as the much-admired Greenbank Academy in south Liverpool, Merseyside Drugs Council, Birkenhead YMCA, Huyton Churches Training Services and Radio Production for unemployed

people at St Helens College are just some of the numerous examples of how targeted investment can yield significant results.

And in Liverpool, Toxteth TV continues to deliver outstanding training in broadcast skills to the local community, including many people of minority ethnic backgrounds, opening up the sectors highly-skilled technical jobs to a much wider range of people.

Developing people

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157,420PEOPLE GAINED QUALIFICATIONS-

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01_Stepping into the future with confidence.

02_Getting practical at Liverpool Community College.

03_Learning traditional skills in Wirral.

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62,770TRAINING PLACES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE-

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99,588TRAINEES ACCESSED EMPLOYMENT-

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01_A local apprentice shows off his gold leaf decoration skills in the magnificently restored small concert room in St George’s Hall, Liverpool

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02_EU investment has created dozens of specialist training centres across Merseyside.

03_Community based learning in Sefton.

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0304_Life-long learning in action.

05_Sefton’s 3tc has helped make ICT accessible to local communities and businesses across Merseyside.

The scale of physical dereliction on Merseyside at the outset of the first Objective One programme was staggering. Even today there remains much to be done, but the sheer scale of what has been achieved in the last fourteen years is there for all to see. A forest of tower cranes punctuating the skyline signalled that things were, and continue, to change.

The city centre has been transformed, as have key gateways in to the city. New airport, rail, shipping and road infrastructure – much of it supported by Objective One - have attracted new users and investors in their wake, bringing further jobs and boosting the region’s connectivity.

Much of the Objective One investment (£173 million or nearly 20% of all investment) has been focused on the key Strategic Investment Areas on Merseyside – the places identified as having the greatest economic potential. This investment was supported by a raft of

initiatives - including training and transport - to ensure that the resulting jobs and other opportunities were targeted at residents of the areas of greatest need.

Many investments were purposely large-scale, highly visible and symbolic interventions designed to have maximum economic and promotional impact. From supporting the action plan for Southport town centre through to investing in Sefton’s first modern business park near the port, we have targeted our investment where it’ll deliver most. The New Brighton waterfront, St. Helens’ successful creative quarter and, of course, Liverpool John Lennon airport, are just some examples of this philosophy in practice.

Transport infrastructure has been a recurring focus for our investment - connectivity being critical, of course, to an economy’s ability to thrive. And so we have invested in public transport links to Liverpool airport at Liverpool South Parkway and other key stations; funded major road improvements

Investing in places and communities

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417h417 HECTARES OF LAND DEVELOPED---

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Strategic Investment Areas

Disadvantaged communities

in St. Helens and Liverpool’s Edge Lane; invested in all of the Mersey Ferries and their terminals, Job-link and Smart Buses; and helped deliver Liverpool’s new cruise liner berth at the Pier Head.

Land has been remediated, new business space opened, old buildings refurbished and brought back in to productive use and public realm in Liverpool city centre and many of the county’s major towns has been dramatically upgraded.

The physical legacy of Objective One, therefore, is probably its most visible – huge, shiny factories and office blocks are hard to miss, after all. But we’d also argue that there has been as much value derived from our people-based interventions. Put the two together and Merseyside will see and feel the benefit for many years to come.

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01_This once largely vacant listed building was magnificently restored with £2.3 m of EU investment to create the unique Hard Days Night Hotel.

02_Quality business space in Wirral.

03_Quality office space in South Wirral was made possible with a £2 million EU investment.

Liverpool City Centre

Atlantic Gateway

Eastern Approaches

Approach 580

Huyton Prescot Link

Speke Halewood

St Helens

Wirral Waterfront

Strategic Investment Areas (SIAs)

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In the early nineties visitors walked out of Lime Street station to be greeted by, well, a mess. XX acres of

derelict and semi-derelict land and buildings, blighted by traffic and with little economic function.

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691,988SQ M OF NEW OR IMPROVED FLOORSPACE-

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01_Dozens of cruise ships, naval vessels and tall ships have brought thousands of people and millions of pounds into the local economy thanks to an EU investment of £9 million in the city’s new £19 million cruise liner terminal.

02_Major new premises for industry in Knowsley.

03_A new landmark to link Southport town centre with the seafront.

04_EU investment has created beautiful new public spaces across St Helens town centre.

05_Backed with £4.6 million of EU investment, the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton has brought top quality theatre and conference facilities to Wirral.

06_The Floral Pavilion’s 800-seat auditorium.

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11.8mMILLION TOURIST VISITS---

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The largest single investment (and also the largest single EU investment nationally) is the Arena and Convention Centre on the Liverpool Waterfront, which received almost £50 million from Objective One towards its £160 million cost. This world-class facility has already hosted around 200 conferences and dozens more concerts and events. Together these are estimated to have generated £200 million for the Merseyside economy during 2008 alone.

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01_World class conference facilities on the waterfront.

02_With a capacity of almost 11,000 the new arena has already made a massive economic impact and given a huge boost to the whole Liverpool waterfront.

03_Award winning design provides a fitting venue for global events.

04_EU investment in The Museum of Liverpool, canal Link and Pier Head environmental works has further strengthened the world class waterfront.

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26LISTED BUILDINGS OR HISTORIC STRUCTURES REFURBISHED OR RESTORED---

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01_Fountains in Williamson Square, which benefited from some of the £12 million of EU investment in city centre public spaces.

02_EU investment in the Bluecoat helped to restore and extend the city centre’s oldest building.

03_St George’s Hall - Jewel of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and Liverpool’s ‘village hall’ benefitted from a £23m restoration, including £3m from the EU.

04_EU investment in Britain’s largest cathedral has helped attract thousands of extra visitors to Liverpool.

05_Splash World, a new EU-funded family attraction in Southport.

06/07_Before and after - one of the many restoration projects carried out in Birkenhead’s Hamilton Quarter.

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01_150,000 sq ft of high quality office space a in this £65 million mixed-use development was made possible with an EU investment of £5 million.

02_New office accommodation in South Wirral.

03_The Theatre Royal in St Helens prior to its refurbishment .

04_EU investment provided a bright new facade for the Theatre Royal.

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£3.18bOF TOTAL NET ADDITIONAL VALUE ADDED---

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05/06_EU investment of £1.4 million has improved access to Sir Edwin Lutyens’ magnificent Metropolitan Cathedral crypt to provide a unique venue and visitor attraction.

07_Signage signalled EU investment across Merseyside .

08_Work underway in the cavernous crypt.

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01_Liverpool Airport before the transformation.

02_An Objective One flagship project – Liverpool John Lennon Airport is now a thriving international gateway to the North West and beyond.

03_Better facilities for all passengers at Bootle Oriel Road Station.

04_The £36 million Liverpool South Parkway was made possible with an EU investment of £10.8m.

05_The £8.3m Olive Mount Chord re-instates a missing link to boost rail freight and reduce road traffic.

06_St Helens Central Station – iconic design provides a fitting gateway to the rejuvenated town centre.

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18421842 COMPANIES ADOPTED GREEN TRAVEL PLANS FOR THEIR STAFF --

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serve. These include the Kensington Sports Centre, which brings unemployed, unskilled youths within a sphere where learning, respect and fun are key parts of the culture. This has been hugely successful in helping to engage with traditionally hard-to-reach young people.

The programme invested over £1.6 million in the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre in Toxteth, Liverpool. This flagship facility provides quality community, learning and business space and supports economic and community regeneration for many of Merseyside’s black and minority ethnic communities.

Bold Miners’ Institute in Parr, St Helens, benefitted from £1.4 million to transform it into a state of the art neighbourhood centre, offering education and training, advice and guidance on job opportunities, benefits, housing and healthy living.

In Wirral, the iconic Lauries Centre provides a base at the heart of Birkenhead for around a dozen organisations, including Wirral Metropolitan College, Sure Start and Age Concern.

Similarly, an EU investment of £350,000 in the Netherton Feelgood Factory has provided a base for a local Credit Union, local job and training projects, The Pensions Service, a Citizens Advice Bureau, and various health and well-being initiatives, right at the heart of that Sefton community.

The YWCA Kirkby Young Women’s Centre received £415,000 to provide a dedicated centre and subsequent personal development and alternative education courses for young women not in mainstream education. The centre also encourages young women to become more involved in their community and to help with the project itself through voluntary work.

There’s not a lot of point in encouraging economic growth and fostering prosperity if your actions don’t benefit - or worse, further exclude - those already on the margins. Far better for society to bring people in to the mainstream and help them access the opportunities that come from economic growth. That has been a cornerstone of Objective One since its first programme.

Programme strategies long since recognised that there is little value in helping people in hard-pressed communities find work without also trying to address the other aspects of life in that community, such as housing stock, education, crime and disorder and lack of both public and private infrastructure.

Without this integrated approach it is likely that the first thing someone with a job will do is move to a better neighbourhood.

National government also recognised this and established Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) to bring together the public, private, community and voluntary sectors in each of the five Merseyside boroughs. This approach allowed different initiatives and services to support one another so that they could work together more effectively.

As a response to the new LSP structures, the programme changed how it tackled problems in the most disadvantaged areas (formerly known as Pathways communities) so that its own structures and investment activities fitted with those of the LSP in each borough.

We invested in a wide range of community facilities across Merseyside with impressive results in terms of people accessing training, mentoring and support. Communities also benefitted from impressive new or improved facilities, right at the heart of the communities that they intended to

Strengthening communities

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32,500RESIDENTS OF THE MOST DISADVANTAGED NEIGHBOURHOODS ENTERED WORK ---

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01_A community based afterschool project in Liverpool.

02_Royal visitors to Inner Farne community enterprise and training centre in St Helens.

03_Major new community facilities in Halewood, Knowsley.

04_A new route to work – linking jobs and training opportunities with the areas of greatest need.

05_A bright new dawn for St Helens.

06_Community-based learning for young people.

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4,100BUSINESSES IN KEY SECTORS ASSISTED-

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A raft of key indicators from the 2008 Merseyside Economic Review show that the staggering economic progress of the last decade continues apace.

Income, productivity, business formation, educational attainment and a whole lot more: all up. Better still, most have improved against the national picture, too.

And there’s more to come. Not just from the major Objective One funded projects that remain on site, such as the Museum of Liverpool, Edge Lane Gateway, and the outstanding work that is transforming Southport’s classic resort, but in terms of legacy performance.

What does that mean? It means that the gains in terms of jobs, consequential investment, confidence, image improvement, life chances and more have yet to play out. In the vernacular, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

That’s some boast, but it’s defensible because evidence from other city regions that have achieved what Merseyside has done tells us so. Just as our decline became self-sustaining, so our growth has the potential to be so, too.

The challenges posed by the current global economic dip have yet to work their way through the system and, whilst we are already beginning to feel its effects, it is felt that overall the restructuring of our economy enabled by Objective One will help see us through this period in much better shape than in past recessions. And that’s not least because the economic gains from its investments haven’t yet been fully felt.

More to come

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01_An inspirational environment for new business at Liverpool Innovation Park.

02_The Museum of Liverpool – a fitting contribution to the world- famous waterfront.

03_Coming soon - a wondrous space in the Museum of Liverpool.

Liverpool City Region. This partnership recognises that change is not achieved overnight, but over decades, and its ambitions for the next 20 years acknowledge the legacy assets that Objective 1 has already delivered to the region.

Merseysiders can therefore look forward with considerable confidence to a future where Merseyside reclaims its position as one of Europe’s premier urban centres.

The future

In the period since 1994, Merseyside has improved significantly against a range of economic indicators - GVA and GVA per head have consistently grown between 1995 and 2006.

Parts of Merseyside still bear the scar of decades of gradual decline reflecting an area still performing below par, and the challenge to build economically sustainable communities remains.

In the future, Merseyside will face increasingly competitive rivals. In the future, Merseyside will look to its neighbouring localities to consolidate and grow its economic base, under the vision for the

sheer scale of Objective 1 funding that caused a step-change in the regions confidence and gave it’s leaders the stability of funding, over a long time-period, to plan for change.

Huge progress has been made in a relatively short space of time, due in no small part to Objective One’s focus on strategic, long-term, high quality investments. Merseyside has moved from a position of post-industrial economic recovery to a stronger and more diverse economic platform encompassing knowledge, science & innovation, culture and tourism.

The physical transformation – of landmark public spaces; of strategic investment areas; of key transport hubs, has positioned Merseyside as a place where people want to live, work and study. The impact of European investment on the physical and cultural assets of the area has raised its image and profile with both visitors and potential investors.

This transformation can be seen in the contribution of Liverpool Innovation Park or the city’s stunning new arena and convention centre on King’s Dock. Both parts of that business are already performing ahead of stretching forecasts, underpinning the continued confidence of hoteliers to bring new hospitality infrastructure to the market.

For more than a century, Merseyside’s journey has been characterised by huge highs and lows – from being the second city of Empire, to devastation and decline in the post-war and post-industrial era; from the thrill of Merseybeat in the 60’s to economic decline and social unrest in the 80’s. European Funding was not the first nor the only lifeline thrown to the region – the impetus provided by initiatives such as the Merseyside Task Force and the Merseyside Development Corporation in the pre-Objective 1 era saw the revival of the Albert Dock and high profile events such as the International Garden Festival – but it was the

The future

In the period since 1994, Merseyside has improved significantly against a range of economic indicators - GVA and GVA per head have consistently grown between 1995 and 2006.

Parts of Merseyside still bear the scar of decades of gradual decline reflecting an area still performing below par, and the challenge to build economically sustainable communities remains.

In the future, Merseyside will face increasingly competitive rivals. In the future, Merseyside will look to its neighbouring localities to consolidate and grow its economic base, under the vision for the

sheer scale of Objective 1 funding that caused a step-change in the regions confidence and gave it’s leaders the stability of funding, over a long time-period, to plan for change.

Huge progress has been made in a relatively short space of time, due in no small part to Objective One’s focus on strategic, long-term, high quality investments. Merseyside has moved from a position of post-industrial economic recovery to a stronger and more diverse economic platform encompassing knowledge, science & innovation, culture and tourism.

The physical transformation – of landmark public spaces; of strategic investment areas; of key transport hubs, has positioned Merseyside as a place where people want to live, work and study. The impact of European investment on the physical and cultural assets of the area has raised its image and profile with both visitors and potential investors.

This transformation can be seen in the contribution of Liverpool Innovation Park or the city’s stunning new arena and convention centre on King’s Dock. Both parts of that business are already performing ahead of stretching forecasts, underpinning the continued confidence of hoteliers to bring new hospitality infrastructure to the market.

For more than a century, Merseyside’s journey has been characterised by huge highs and lows – from being the second city of Empire, to devastation and decline in the post-war and post-industrial era; from the thrill of Merseybeat in the 60’s to economic decline and social unrest in the 80’s. European Funding was not the first nor the only lifeline thrown to the region – the impetus provided by initiatives such as the Merseyside Task Force and the Merseyside Development Corporation in the pre-Objective 1 era saw the revival of the Albert Dock and high profile events such as the International Garden Festival – but it was the

Final Word

I hope you can see on these pages, that fourteen years of Objective One investment has been a catalyst for change on Merseyside; not only by creating jobs, improving skills and encouraging the right conditions for growth, but through the sheer scale of transformation of key urban landscapes - this will be it’s most visible and enduring legacy.

It would not have been possible without the co-operation and collaboration of our partners and stakeholders. My thanks goes to them for having the ambition and confidence to deliver.

Managing a programme of this scale has been a complex and challenging task. On behalf of our partners and stakeholders, I would also like to thank colleagues at Government Office for the North West for their commitment and expertise.

The enormous improvements Objective One has brought to the area have not gone un-noticed in London and Brussels and they join with me in celebrating its many successes.

There are undoubtedly significant challenges still to be addressed, not least around the enterprise and skills agenda, and although the global economic downturn will bring new challenges, it won’t deflect people from recognising and enjoying Merseyside’s remarkable renaissance.

Chris MussomEuropean Programme DirectorGovernment Office for the North West