Liverpool City Region
The Liverpool City Region is a combined authority area in North West England. It has six council areas: the five metropolitan boroughs of Merseyside and the unitary authority of Halton in Cheshire. The city region had a population of 1,571,045 in 2022. Its largest settlement and administrative HQ is Liverpool.
The region's mayor and combined authority have a devolution deal responsible for economic development, regeneration, transport, employment and skills, tourism, culture, housing, spatial planning and physical infrastructure.
The region's economic development was supported by the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, established in 2010 as the private sector-led board comprising political and business leaders from around the city region. The LEP's functions were merged into the combined authority in 2023.
History
In 2004, the Government of the United Kingdom launched an initiative to strengthen the economy and quality of life in Northern England. Yorkshire Forward, One NorthEast, and the Northwest Regional Development Agency, the three regional development agencies in the North of England, were invited to form a partnership, and in September 2004, they published the document Moving Forward: The Northern Way First Growth Strategy Report.Within the document, eight city regions in the North were identified, including the Liverpool city region. It was argued that economic growth could be accelerated with the establishment of new city region governance that surpassed existing administrative boundaries to more accurately reflect travel to work areas, catchment areas, housing market areas, and labour market areas.
On 13 March 2007, local government minister Phil Woolas announced plans to create a cabinet government including the leaders of the following six councils: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral. This decision triggered devolution for what was termed the 'Liverpool City Region'.
In January 2009, an agreement was made that the six local authorities would form the Liverpool City Region, in a Multi-Area Agreement. The agreement led to a transfer, from central government, greater responsibilities in more than ten areas covering employment, skills, transport, regeneration, housing and planning. Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government said: "Today's 'Liverpool city-region' Multi-Area Agreement will mean Merseyside's six councils will no longer have to work alone on their economy, they will work from the same blueprint with more devolved powers to deliver jobs, training, welfare support and economic resilience."
Definition
The combined authority of Liverpool City Region includes the local government districts of Liverpool, Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.Some definitions of the city region include a much wider area. The now revoked North West of England Regional Spatial Strategy defined the city region for "the purposes of articulating RSS policy" as covering the six local authorities and extending "as far as Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston and West Lancashire".
A 2011 report, Liverpool City Region –– Building on its Strengths, by an independent working group led by Michael Heseltine and Terry Leahy, stated that "what is now called Liverpool City Region has a population of around 1.5million", but also referred to "an urban region that spreads from Wrexham and Flintshire to Chester, Warrington, West Lancashire and across to Southport", with a population of 2.3million. The European Union's ESPON calculated the Liverpool metropolitan area to be over 2.2million people.
The neighbouring local authorities of Warrington Borough Council and West Lancashire are associate members of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and thus co-operate in the Liverpool city region meetings.
Governance
Combined authority
Background
Since the abolition of Merseyside County Council, the councils have co-operated as permitted by the Local Government Act 1972 and required by the Local Government Act 1985, for example the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority and the Merseyside Passenger Transport Authority. Liverpool City Region's proposal to central government for a combined authority was approved by Parliamentary statutory order in late March, and it legally came into existence from 1 April 2014. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will become the top-tier administrative body of Liverpool City Region. It will be a body corporate responsible for strategic decision making. The six local authorities in the area constituting the combined authority will pool together powers over economic development, regeneration and transport policy. The combined authority originally comprised seven members: the council leaders of Halton, Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral, the Mayor of Liverpool, a post replaced by Council Leader in 2023, and the chairperson, as the representative, of the local enterprise partnership. The proposed authority was known as the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority up until submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Greater Merseyside Combined Authority in the published scheme. The consultation preceding the creation of the combined authority showed strong support for a name including 'Liverpool' rather than 'Merseyside', in order to capitalise and build upon Liverpool'sglobal 'brand'. The name was changed to the Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral Combined Authority in the draft order presented to parliament. On 21 February 2014 it was decided by the constituent councils that the authority will use the public name of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Current Combined Authority
The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority is the main governing body for the Liverpool City Region, providing governance of the City Region using powers devolved from Central Government, the current Composition of the Combined Authority is:Constituent Members :
- Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
- Council Leaders of Halton, Sefton, Liverpool, St Helens, Wirral and Knowsley
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region
in 2016 the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 provided the provisions for Combined Authorities to establish directly elected mayors commonly referred to as "Metro Mayors" to lead their respective regions combined authorities. The LCRCA decided on the creation of a Mayor for the City Region, replacing the need of a Chairperson who previously oversaw CA meetings. in 2017 the first Mayoral election took place in which Steve Rotheram was elected as the first Mayor. At the time the office was styled "Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region" to avoid confusion with the "Mayor of Liverpool" the then council leader of Liverpool City Council, which was abolished in 2023 and replaced by a Council Leader inline with other councils in the City Region. Presently the Office is now styled as Mayor of the Liverpool City Region.The Mayor wields a number of powers devolved from central government and is seen as the chief representative of the city region in National and International affairs, and also serves as the Chairperson of the Combined Authority.
Local enterprise partnership
The Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, which has now been absorbed by the LCRCA, was established in 2010 and was the local enterprise partnership for Liverpool City Region.The LEP initiated Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone, which was set up in 2012. The enterprise zone contains two sites, Liverpool Waters and Wirral Waters.
in April 2023 the LEP announced that it would be integrated as a department of the Combined Authority as the Business and Enterprise Board of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Members of Parliament
Geography
Demography
Population
The region had a population of in.Economy
The Liverpool City Region is strongly established as an important driving force in the economy of Northern England and as a strategic sea and air gateway to the European Union. It connects to North America, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Europe and beyond; serving international, national and regional markets, investors and visitors. In 20082010, Liverpool had the UK's fastest growing economy outside London, one of the UK's top three biomedical centres, and has the UK's second largest wealth management industry.The region is largely monocentric with Liverpool as the dominant employment centre, however economic activity is widely spread across the six districts. Broadly speaking Liverpool is the commercial, cultural and transport hub of the region, with Sefton as the base of Seaforth Dock and tourist resort of Southport, Halton as the location for chemical, science, technology, logistics and distribution companies, and Knowsley, St Helens and Wirral providing key manufacturing and logistics for the area. The city of Liverpool itself has a compact travel to work area reflecting its position on the North West Atlantic Seaboard and compactness of the surrounding urban area.
The city region is traditionally seen as a service sector economy, with its so called knowledge economy providing one third of the local employment base and over 40% of its total economic value. According to statistics for 2008, the Life sciences sector accounts for almost 10% of the region's economy, over 71,000 people are employed in financial and professional services, over 34,000 in manufacturing, and almost 24,000 in the creative and digital industry. The area is strongly connected to global markets, through its ports, airports and by its many multinational companies. World companies such as Barclays Wealth, Jaguar Land Rover, Maersk, Novartis, Sony and Unilever, all have a major base of operation in the locality.
| District | GVA | GVA per capita | GDP | GDP per capita |
| Halton | £4.0 | £31,390 | £4.5 | £34,985 |
| Knowsley | £4.0 | £25,927 | £4.6 | £29,407 |
| Liverpool | £14.3 | £29,489 | £15.9 | £32,841 |
| St Helens | £2.8 | £15,448 | £3.4 | £18,803 |
| Sefton | £4.6 | £16,275 | £5.4 | £19,418 |
| Wirral | £5.6 | £17,527 | £6.6 | £20,688 |
| Liverpool City Region | £35.3 | £22,778 | £40.5 | £26,086 |