Littlewoods Plan Stays on Track After Film Studio Exit

The company behind the redevelopment of Liverpool's Littlewoods building says the project is still on track, even though Twickenham Studios will no longer be part of it. Capital & Centric, which has worked on the Edge Lane site for more than a decade, confirmed the studio's departure.

The Art Deco landmark was meant to become a film production and post-production complex, billed as a "Hollywood of the North".

John Moffat of Capital & Centric spoke after Chancellor John Healey announced a £20m funding package for the scheme in Wednesday's Budget. He told a regional news programme that the studio had pulled out, and he tried to ease worries about "another false dawn" for the site.

A long-promised tenant

Twickenham Studios, whose credits include War Horse and The Iron Lady, was named an "anchor tenant" in 2018. It was due to take up to 85,000 sq ft of the complex. After a major fire at the buildings that year, the studio said it was still committed. It said the same in 2024, although it had dissolved a company it set up for the project, Twickenham Studios Liverpool Ltd, the year before. The studio has been contacted for comment.

Moffat said he was confident the scheme would be completed and would bring jobs and money. "It does need more than £20m but this unlocks further funding," he said. He said money had already been spent on remediating the site and making it structurally stable. In his words, the Budget funding is "the next step moving us from ambition into action".

"I understand people's scepticism but, as a business, this is what we do up and down the country," Moffat said. He added that the site would generate "thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions per annum for the local economy".

Reaction in Liverpool

Kris Brown, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Gateacre, said the sheer scale of the project meant it was never viable without government help. "We cannot afford any more false dawns though," he said. He called on the developers to get a contractor in place and to be fully transparent, with a plan in case the scheme does not work out.

Lynn Saunders, head of the Liverpool Film Office, said the Chancellor's announcement gives the scheme "a massive boost". She said productions are flocking to the city region but there is not enough ancillary space, workshops or innovation space. In her view the site is not just for film and television but for the creative industries, as a focal point for developing skills.

Jimmy Mulville, managing director of Hat Trick Productions, called Liverpool the most "film city" outside London. He said producers who shoot locations there are often forced to go south to Pinewood and Shepperton to finish their productions. "If this building was in London, it would have been redeveloped many, many years ago," he said.

Source: BBC News