A hi-tech revolution is key to the future of north Liverpool. City Editor David Bartlett reports on the plans

AMBITIOUS plans to pipe hot water to thousands of homes and businesses are at the heart of a £40m regeneration plan for part of north Liverpool.

As revealed in the Daily Post yesterday, the North Liverpool City Fringe Employment and Investment programme to create 1,800 jobs has won £25m from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund (RGF).

It will unlock £130m of investment which includes renovating Stanley Dock, and help the Eldonian Group to build a combined heat and power plant – providing electricity and hot water to the local area.

Today, the Eldonian Group were due to start interviewing energy companies to set up a joint venture to run the scheme.

It will involve building a £6m to £7m 20-megawatt electricity generating plant.

Initially, it will be powered with natural gas, and water used in the cooling system will be piped to homes and businesses within a mile radius at a temperature of 80°C.

As part of the £40m plan, a new office building will be built to the highest green standard, known as the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (Breeam).

It will include solar panels on the roof and have 40,000sq ft of space.

The Eldonian Group hopes to attract companies such as data processing companies to locate in their offices or nearby.

Lawrence Santangeli, chief executive of the Eldonian Group, said: “They are very energy-hungry, and we will be able to provide security of energy and long-term contracts.

“We believe that, where schemes like this have been created, businesses tend to gravitate towards them because they know they can have security of power.”

The group plans to retrofit the 350 homes into the Eldonian Village with the hot water system.