Sector Focus

Several multi-million-pound construction projects are either under way or in the pipeline in Knowsley that will transform areas across the borough.

Schemes currently under way or imminent include hundreds of new homes, retail and leisure outlets, logistics hubs and the new Shakespeare North Playhouse. They will lead to several thousand jobs and a significant increase in opportunities for local businesses and suppliers.

Tony Clark, the council’s Assistant Executive Director for Development and Infrastructure said the council’s Local Development Plan, and the pro-active approach of the authority along with Invest Knowsley and Knowsley Chamber was now paying dividends.

He said that, despite the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy, Knowsley was now in a strong position to push forward with economic recovery and growth. He added: “We have some amazing investment going into our town centres. It is providing confidence for existing businesses, creating jobs for local people and creating opportunities in the local supply chain.

“Despite the pandemic, we are seeing as much new development in the borough now as we have seen at any point in the past few years. Economic development for our residents is our top priority.

“In 2020 alone we saw the construction of around 1,000 new homes across Knowsley. Developments by Anwyl, Bellway, Torus and LMH are well under way. Liverpool FC’s new £50m first team training facility was also completed last year.”

Torus development, Huyton

Knowsley Council’s own plans include a focus on the regenerations of its town centres – Kirkby, Prescot and Huyton. Work is already under way on the redevelopment of Kirkby town centre. The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has committed almost £13m in to support the scheme.

Phase one will deliver 94,000 sq ft of new retail space anchored by a Morrisons supermarket alongside a petrol station, Home Bargains, KFC and Taco Bell. There will also be a new multi-screen cinema and food and drink outlets on the site of the former Kirkby Library. It will lead to the creation of more than 500 jobs.

Cinema development, Kirkby

New development in Prescot has a focus on the leisure and visitor economy. The town has already seen the opening of 14 new food and drink outlets over the past year. And the centrepiece will be the £27m Shakespeare North Playhouse.

Due to open in 2022, the theatre will provide a flexible capacity of between 320 and 472 seats, based on the 17th century ‘cockpit-in-court’ design. It will also boast an inclusive education programme, digital gallery, visitor centre and additional performance spaces including an outdoor performance garden.

In Huyton, an emerging night-time economy is developing with a number of new restaurants opening their doors including in the village centre. In addition, the council will soon be starting the search for a development partner with which it aims to create a new commercial district within the Liverpool City Region. Mr Clark explained: “The council owns and currently occupies a seven-acre piece of land in the town centre which could offer significant scope for new development.

“What we are looking at is the provision of new commercial office space, a hotel, residential development and leisure facilities. We believe this has the potential to create a significant number of new jobs.”

Other projects under way or in the pipeline for Knowsley, include:

• Tritax Symmetry has submitted a planning application for the creation of a 1m sq ft logistics hub, called Symmetry Park, on the site of the former Cronton Colliery at Halsnead Garden Village. It could create up to 1,035 direct temporary jobs during construction and up to 1,000 permanent jobs in the finished scheme. It is forecast it will generate around £51m of net additional GVA every year.

• Image Park at Knowsley Industrial Estate, owned by Seybourne Estates, is set to see the creation of a 65,000 sq ft industrial facility on the former Kodak premises.

• Affordable housing group, Torus, has acquired a site from Knowsley Council to deliver a £24m Rent to Buy housing scheme offering 131 two, three and four-bedroom homes at Knowsley Lane and Astley Road in Huyton. Working in partnership with the Council, the development will see the brownfield site repurposed in an area identified for investment.

• Your Housing Group has started work on a £37m housing development in Kirkby. Main contractor ENGIE will build 266 houses – 106 for shared ownership, 115 affordable rent and 45 for private rent. Located on Whitefield Drive, it will have a mix of two, three and four-bedroom homes and a landscaped community setting.

Your Housing development, Kirkby

In late January, a report from property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield showed take-up of logistics space in the North West hit 4.7m sq ft in 2020, an increase of 32% on 2019. Much of this demand was fuelled by online retailers such as Amazon who have seen a big increase in business during the pandemic.

Almost 38% of total annual take-up (including parcel delivery and postal operators) came from e-commerce operators, an all-time high. Demand across the North West originated from all major sectors with manufacturing accounting for one third of deals signed.

At the same time, availability of space in the region fell by more than 40% in 2020 to 7.4m sq ft, significantly below the long-term average of 9.3m sq ft. With its excellent transport links, Knowlsey is well-placed to capitalise on the logistics boom and Mr Clark advised that the Council are in ongoing dialogue with a number of key players in this market sector.

Mr Clark concluded: “At North Perimeter Road close to Kirkby, the council owns a piece of land of around 30 acres. We know this has immediate potential for logistics space. There is a huge demand for logistics accommodation and this site could directly lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs.

Tritax development, Kirkby

Cllr Tony Brennan, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development, summed up the developments across the borough: “Our development plans for the borough are driven by strong market demand. We already have some fantastic and world class businesses here and we know, due to the connectivity we offer, that other businesses are keen to set up bases in the borough. Increasingly people also want to live here which is why we need to support demand for new homes.

“The aim of all these projects is to support economic growth and offer Knowsley residents new homes, new retail and leisure facilities and opportunities for local firms to bid for contracts and create new jobs and apprenticeships.

“And other important aspect is that they will generate extra revenues through business rates and council tax to fund critical services for people across the borough. By getting this balance right and delivering our local plans, we can help to create an even greater future for Knowsley, its businesses and its people.”

Behind the Doors

Co-director and co-founder of Knowsley Lifts, Stephen Fitzgerald, talks about the past, present and future of this fast-growing business…

What does the business do?

We are a multi-disciplinary business who’s roots began in Knowsley, with our HQ

now in Edge Lane, Liverpool. Our business is separated into two distinct divisions: The service department which comprises a team of highly-skilled engineers that maintains and repairs lifts for clients across the UK; and the capital projects team which secures and delivers contracts for the design, installation and replacement of lifts.

What is the history of the company?

Leaving school in 1988, I landed an apprentice lift engineer position for the largest UK lift company, Express Lifts. After qualifying I was partnered alongside another engineer called Tommy Murphy, both individually working our way to regional technician positions during the early 1990s.

By the mid-1990s Tommy and I had discussed leaving and setting up our own business together. In 1997, the opportunity came along when Express Lifts was acquired by Otis, a multi-national company. Following the takeover we felt the clients were not getting the same level of service, so we decided to take the plunge and go it alone.

For the first three years we worked mainly as sub-contactors to larger companies but, in 2000, we felt we wanted to move away from that and start bidding for work ourselves. And so Knowsley Lifts was born as a limited company. Since then we have gone from strength to strength.

In 2002 we were accredited by LEIA, the Lift and Escalator Industry Association, the UK Lift Industry Governing Body, like the ABTA of the lift industry. 2007 was a real breakthrough year as we secured a £2.4m contract to replace 13 lifts, and install four new ones, at the Exchange Flags office complex in Liverpool.

In 2012 we surpassed the 1,000 lifts milestone and in 2014 we won what was a prestigious contract to install the lifts for the refurbished Everyman Theatre, which eventually won the RIBA Stirling Prize. In 2017 we were rated number one for sales growth among the 369 largest companies in the sector in the UK.

Who are the key people in Knowsley Lifts?

The quality of the people within our team and across all departments of our business is one of the things that sets us apart. They are a fantastic asset.

Myself and Tommy are the founders and the co-directors. Then we have Carey Oakes, who is our operations director. She predominantly looks after the major projects side of the business and plays a critical role in our ongoing growth.

Jay Maloney is our service director and he oversees the team of engineers who go out to maintain and repair lifts for our clients. In 2001 we took on our first apprentices and Jay was one of them.

Since then we have brought through 20 apprentices and many of them are still working for us. We have invested in them and they have repaid that faith by helping become the amazing business that we are today.

We currently employ around 30 people directly and there around another 40 engineers who we bring on as and when we need them. We have taken on one further new Capital Project Manager during this Covid period, with us looking to recruit further, seeing our headcount grow further in the very near future.

Give us a current snapshot of the business

As things stand we have a secured pipeline of work worth around £5m and that alone will keep us busy for the next 18 months. We have also tendered for a further £100m of work so, right now, we are extremely busy and with new capital projects landing on an almost weekly basis. It is clear we are going to continue this strong trend going forward.

We are not a manufacturer of lifts but we have a full in-house design team and we have a great relationship with the major global manufacturers and suppliers. Each job has its own specification and we have to supply a bespoke lift, depending on the job.

Much of our work is very niche and this is where, I believe, we outperform the bigger companies. They are more one-size-fits-all and often don’t offer the know-how and flexibility that we can. We can put a lift in any shaft and a lot of the work we do is not standard.

Our long-term clients list includes local authorities, NHS trusts (we are currently helping keeping the lifts going in the existing Royal Hospital in Liverpool), Mersey Tunnels, universities, the Ministry of Defence and (regional police forces) – so we are clearly doing something right. Our current capital projects include:

• Shakespeare North Playhouse, a 350-capacity theatre which is scheduled to open in Prescot in 2022. It is modelled on the ‘cockpit-in-court’ design popular in the Elizabethan era. We will be designing and installing three lifts. We had to go through a long selection process to get this job – it was a great result.

• Replacing one of the large lifts at St George’s Hall in Liverpool – a very high-spec job.

• A platform lift for Sefton Park Palm House – because of the tropical heat it was akin to installing a lift in jungle environments, with a very high level of specification and design required to successfully accomplish.

• And new lifts for the Rhyl Pavilion Theatre which helps us cement our reputation as a leading provider in North Wales.

There are also a number of legacy projects we are very proud of. We have installed lifts on the new £200m polar research vessel, RRS Sir David

Attenborough which was built at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. We also installed a new service lift at the Royal Liver Building – (a very complex job which was shortlisted for the World Elevation Magazine Project of the Year in 2020), new lifts at Premier League football stadia and what is the highest platform lift in the UK at the Snowden visitor complex.

How has COVID-19 impacted your operations?

Early in the pandemic the start dates on some of our projects were put back, but the are backing up and running now. We had to furlough some of our engineers last year in tandem with the closure of clients sites and buildings but we have been back to full strength for about five months with the re-opening of buildings and sites allowing access to our teams to undertake our services.

How competitive is the market you operate in?

We have a growing reputation for being one of the best independents in the UK with the number of successful project bids we are awarded, and the number of customers who keep going back to us, is testament to that.