Steve Rotheram calls for brownfield funding reforms

The government must allow local authorities more flexibility around funding pots to support housebuilding at scale and the administration’s 1.5 million homes target, according to the mayor of the Liverpool City Region.

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(L to R): Steve Rotheram, mayor, LCRCA; Stuart Foster, head of coverage, Barclay’s Corporare Banking; David Lewis, exec group director of property and investment, L&Q; Zoe Lamb, head of client transition and impact, Barclays Corporate Banking

Speaking at UKREiiF 2026, Steve Rotheram said: “I’m not saying anything I haven’t said to the government […] they need to back off.

“If you speak to most of the mayors, they have projects which, if we were just allowed some more flexibility around the funding pots that we’ve got, we can build that cocktail that then addresses the viability issue. We can get them off the ground very, very quickly.”

He said fewer restrictions around local government funds would give local authorities and partners “the confidence to catalyse regeneration”, saying he wants to build a train station and thousands of homes in the Sutton Rock area of North Liverpool, which was bombed during the Liverpool Blitz.

“If government can’t do that for us, and agencies can’t do that for us, we just need leaders to do it,” he added.

In December 2025, Rotheram announced plans to establish a mayoral development corporation (MDC) by autumn 2026 in a bid to accelerate regeneration across the region.

Under the MDC, the mayor would be using his devolved development powers for the first time to fast-track the delivery of around 17,500 homes and five million sq ft of commercial space over the next 15 years.

Rotheram said that Whitehall “doesn’t understand the specifics of an area” in need of regeneration, whereas a local authority “can see where bits genuinely fit,” particularly when it comes to funding work on brownfield land.

“I said to [housing minister] Steve Reed: ’If you can show me somewhere in London that has still got bomb damage from the Second World War, I won’t ask for any more brownfield land reforms, but you can’t, because it’s all been done’,” he added.

Also speaking on the panel, Ian Workman, chief national officer at Homes England, emphasised the importance of establishing partnerships to deliver housing at scale, saying the agency and the government “can’t do this alone.”

He said: “The approach has to be place-based, understanding what places [need] and what those families or local people [need].”

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