Green light for Liverpool life sciences development
Planning approval paves way for UK to become leader in global life science sector
Planning permission has been granted for the first phase of a multi-million pound development project that will place the UK alongside the US and Asia as a leading international centre for life sciences.
Liverpool City Council planners have given the thumbs-up to the creation of the Liverpool BioInnovation Centre, which is the first step towards the development of a city centre BioCampus.
The scheme will create 5,000 high tech/high value jobs and is being driven by a partnership between the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool City Council, the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Helen Jackson, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust’s director of strategy and redevelopment, said:” This is a very welcome step forward in our ambitious development plans for the Liverpool BioInnovation Centre. The centre is the first stage in a far-reaching development strategy that will define Liverpool’s future economy and boost regeneration.”
The planning application approval is for a 70,000sq ft building with state-of-the-art commercial-scale laboratory space where new life-saving treatments and technologies can be tested and developed for the commercial market place.
Work on site is expected to start in the autumn, with completion by early 2014.
The project will be delivered in conjunction with the construction of the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital, which is currently out to tender.
