Councillors in Liverpool give green light to city centre scheme by Home Bargains billionaire Tom Morris to create 250 student apartments in the city centre. Tony McDonough reports

TJ Morris will create new student homes in Liverpool city centre. Image from planning document

Home Bargains tycoon Tom Morris will push on with plans to build 250 student apartments in Liverpool after council planners gave the project the go-ahead.

On Tuesday morning councillors on the city’s planning committee approved the development, located in Audley Street in the city’s Fabric District and close to London Road. It is also bounded by Ilford Street, Gildart Street, and Kempston Street

Mr Morris’s business TJ Morris, which owns the £3.8-turnover Home Bargains retail chain, is partnering with Caro Developments on the scheme which will offer 36 studios and 214 one-bedroom units. Falconer Chester Hall is the architect.

Part of the existing building, which is already home to a Home Bargains outlet, will be demolished and the completed building will rise from three storeys to seven. Warehouses will be knocked down and the Home Bargains store will be retained and upgraded.

This is a very welcome decision that will see us deliver a high-quality development which improves the street scene and brings more footfall to the area,” said Neil Carlyle, managing director of Caro Developments.

“Students’ expectations have evolved rapidly since the pandemic, and we’ve incorporated a number of innovations that will ensure the development leads the market. It’s a perfect location, sitting on the doorstep of the Knowledge Quarter.”

Dave Little, development director at TJ Morris, added: “This is very good news and allows us to bring our resources to bear once again in our home city.

“Liverpool has enormous potential, and we welcome the opportunity to work with a local authority that recognises the role developers can play in job creation, place-making and the city’s wider competitiveness.”

Zerum is the planning consultant for the project. Clancy is the structural engineer, with Orion Fire Engineers advising on fire safety.

The development is located in Liverpool’s fabric district

Robert Brym, associate director at Falconer Chester Hall, also said: “The whole area speaks of the Georgian and Victorian desire to elevate functional buildings through design and materials.

“There are pleasing flourishes throughout and so our façade treatments, particularly the use of geometric patterns in the brickwork, needed to be able to hold their own.

Mr Morris, a billionaire, is also busy elsewhere in the city centre. He is teaming up with Beetham to bring forward a skyscraper cluster on the King Edward Triangle industrial estate close to the waterfront.

Home Bargains, which enjoys sales of  £3.8bn a year, is one of the UK’s biggest budget retailers. It has more than 570 stores across the UK, employing 28,000 people, and its headquarters and main distribution centre are located in North Liverpool.