Pound shops: Liverpool £1 house scheme extended to shops

Mayor Joe Anderson hopes the plan will help the Picton area become "a thriving community again"

Liverpool City Council is to extend an economic regeneration scheme offering homes for £1 to include shops.

The vacant units, along with 150 homes, will be offered under plans which go before the council's cabinet in April.

The plan focuses on "neglected" properties on and around Smithdown Road in Picton.

It follows the "overwhelming interest" the council had in its 2013 Homes For A Pound scheme, Mayor Joe Anderson said.

He said that initiative had shown the idea was "viable", so the idea was to "expand it significantly".

The council report recommends introducing Homes For A Pound Plus, which would see empty terraced houses and shops in the area sold or leased for £1.

Mr Anderson says the homes sold in the 2013 pilot scheme were "starting to come to fruition"

In return, the council would expect owners to bring houses "up to decent homes standard" and businesses "back into use", a spokesman said.

The new sales would be split into five phases, based on condition and geography, and would see the introduction of a financial assistance scheme "for those who do not have the money to hand to carry out the refurbishments," he added.

The proposal follows the launch of a pilot scheme in April 2013, which saw about 1,000 applicants for one of 20 properties offered.

Mr Anderson said the homes in the original scheme were "starting to come to fruition, transforming run-down properties into beautiful family homes".

"Now that we know that this type of scheme is a viable way of bringing empty homes back into use, we are going to expand it significantly and also looking at using a similar model to bring vacant shop units back into use," he said.

Mr Anderson said he hoped the plan would "help further improve the area and make sure it becomes a thriving community again".