An £8.5 million residential regeneration project in Liverpool has won an accolade at the national Housing Excellence Awards.

The Marwood Towers project in Everton secured the Best Partnering Scheme prize at the awards event last week in Manchester.

The development was the first scheme to be delivered by the Liverpool Housing Partnership (LHP) – a consortia approach to public-private housing delivery consisting of Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Mutual Homes, Willmott Partnership Homes and Redrow Homes.

Work involved transforming the building into high-quality modern apartments, including specialist accommodation for over-55s. LHP member Willmott Partnership Homes delivered a complete refurbishment of the original 57 flats and built a two-storey additional wing comprising 24 apartments.

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Overall, the award recognised the joint approach which sees receipts from land sales to Redrow ring-fenced and reinvested by the city council into affordable housing by LMH.

Willmott Partnership Homes' Operations Director, Stuart Belfield, said: "We are delighted that our innovative consortia approach, which is the first of its kind across the UK, has won a top national award.

"The project focused on giving an outdated building a sensitive 21st century makeover and creating high-quality modern living for Liverpool.”

Liverpool Mutual Homes Chief Executive, Steve Coffey, said: "Marwood Towers is a great example of how we are delivering significant regeneration projects across Liverpool under the LHP partnership, to help address the city's shortage of high-quality affordable homes."

As well as Marwood Towers, the consortia aims to create a minimum of 1,500 new homes and bring 1,000 more back into use, equivalent to a £205 million investment over the next five years.

The scheme also has a potential for a further £200m of developments, providing work for up to 6,450 people through direct and on-site employment and throughout the supply chain.

(LM)