Mr Downes added: “The grant we are finalising with the NWDA will allow us to not only bring forward the timescale for the restoration of the formal gardens but also accelerate delivery of the residential development.

“The agency’s investment will also cover the management and maintenance of the park for five years, within which time it is anticipated that we will be able to commence development on the balance of the site and secure its long-term future.”

Chief executive of the NWDA, Steve Broomhead, said: “The agency is working closely with our partners to take forward the redevelopment of this site, which has the potential to create a major visitor attraction of international significance and enhance the wider Mersey Waterfront programme to maximise the potential of Merseyside’s waterfront areas.

“We are currently in the final stages of negotiations regarding our investment into the project to enable Langtree to take forward the regeneration.”

Euan Hall, chief executive of the Land Restoration Trust said the former Garden Festival site “has been a blot on Liverpool’s landscape for 25 years.

“Finally a solution is in sight that will help make this the community asset it always should have been,” he said.

The 1984 International Garden Festival was the first of its kind in Britain, billed as “a five-month pageant of horticultural excellence and spectacular entertainment”.

Only two years previously, the site had been derelict, but following the event, fell once again into disrepair.