Business welcomes multi-billion pound regeneration plan

"There's a tendency in Liverpool to start with looking at all the potential problems when considering any proposals," he continued. "I hope what we will all do with this is say, 'let's start by looking at all the positives'."

Peel, the property development company owned by reclusive Isle of Man resident John Whittaker which owns assets including the Trafford Centre and Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is proposing to erect more than 50 buildings, many of them in excess of 50 storeys, on a 150 acre site stretching from Princes Dock in the South to Bramley Moore Dock in the North.

The 21 million square foot scheme, referred to by Peel as "Liverpool Waters", is expected to take around 30 years to complete and will mirror the £4.5bn "Wirral Waters" regeneration of Birkenhead Docks announced by the company last September.

The developers say their plans will produce a waterfront to rival cities like New York, Shanghai, Dubai and Vancouver. As well as office space, the scheme includes a new cruise liner terminal, four hotels, a marina and 23,000 new homes. The plans include self-sufficient buildings that will generate their own electricity through integral wind turbines.

Another key aspect is a monorail to link the site to the city centre and, it is hoped, onward to John Lennon Airport. The company is to hold talks with the city council and Merseyrail to establish the funding and operational aspects of this scheme.

In all, the developer says the scheme will directly generate 17,000 permanent new jobs in the city, plus tens of thousands of construction jobs.

First, though, Peel needs to gain planning permission. Having acquired the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company for £771 million in 2005, Peel already owns all the relevant land, with no need for controversial CPOs. However, the size of the scheme means there will almost definitely be a public inquiry, which will take around five years to complete, following the submission of an outline planning application in about 12 months' time.

The announcement came on the same day as culture secretary Tessa Jowell threw her weight behind proposed laws that would strengthen the protection of views of the Unesco-listed Pier Head from being obscured by high-rise developments. However, the main plank of the new laws is that it should be easier to force schemes to a public inquiry - which would happen with this development in any case.

McKenna did, though, say, "Planning is always the fear. 18 months ago Peel said Liverpool City Council was the most difficult local authority it had to deal with. But I heard the comments from [council leader] Warren Bradley at the launch and they were very positive. I hope the rest of the council take note and put their enabling heads on."

On the other vital question - whether there will be adequate demand for millions of square feet of office space in North Liverpool - he was upbeat. "One of the problems with Liverpool is that the city boundary is too tight - it sometimes feels more like a village," he said. "We need to learn from Manchester's example and expand outwards."

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