Is it time Peel got a move on?

Dear readers — Happy Friday, one and all, and a very momentous Friday it is. This morning’s breaking news has shook the city: the former Liverpool mayor – alongside the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council and ten other associates  – has finally been charged in Operation Aloft. 

Given the enormous shadow that this investigation has cast over Merseyside for years now, Liverpool’s leadership are desperate to prove they can turn things around. Many of them are banking on the biggest development project since Liverpool One to help transform the city’s image: the multi-billion pound plan for Liverpool Waters.

For today’s story, Abi nabbed a rare interview with the person responsible for bringing that project to life: the managing director of Peel Waters, James Whittaker. Whittaker and his family’s company have faced years of criticism that the waterfront transformation is taking too long to complete – not to mention more general misgivings about one of the biggest private property companies in the country wielding this much influence over the city. Abi spoke with some of the developers who have been airing their grievances about Peel – and put those criticisms to Whittaker. 

Your Post briefing 

Former mayor Joe Anderson has been charged with bribery and misconduct following Operation Aloft, Merseyside Police’s probe into property developers in the city. Also charged is Derek Hatton, the outspoken former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council and Militant member turned businessman. Both men were first arrested in 2020 as part of the investigation into the awarding of building contracts. Ten other individuals have also been charged, including former director of regeneration Nick Kavanagh; former council assistant director Andrew Barr; mayor Anderson’s son David, whose firm was controversially awarded a £250,000 highway job without previous experience; Paul and Julian Flanagan, co-founders of property company the Flanagan Group (who The Post reported on last year), and Alex Croft — a PR strategist introduced to mayor Anderson in 2018 by none other than Liverpool PR guru Dan Hughes. Crikey. Quite the list…

On the grapevine: Anthony Lavelle, the regional director of Labour North West, has allegedly been suspended after just six months in the top job, according to sources within the party. Lavelle was appointed regional director in July last year after former director Liam Didsbury stepped down from his role to, in the words of Labour North West, “spend more time with his young family”. The news came just a fortnight after Labour’s victory in the General Election, and allegations that Didsbury — along with Lavelle and senior Labour figure Sheila Murphy — had been exercising too much control over the appointment of council leaders and MPs over the past decade. Abi wrote a brilliant piece unpicking the influence of Didsbury, Lavelle and Murphy — read that here. The Post asked Labour North West for confirmation that Lavelle had been suspended or let go from his role. They did not respond to our questions, and Labour’s press office told us they cannot comment on “staffing matters”. 

And St Johns Market will not reopen, the Echo reports. Almost a year after traders there were left in the cold and locked out of their stalls, the council is now considering alternate plans. Councillor Nick Small understands people might be disappointed, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), but he asserted that "the best days lay ahead" for the hall, which had been running for almost 200 years. When the closure was first announced, traders told us how disappointed and blindsided they were by the council’s decision. Speaking to BBC Merseyside, Small floated the option of opening a food market on the site. 

 Is it time Peel got a move on?

“We put our money where our mouth is and deliver — I don't know why the perception is like that. Maybe because there's a few people that just don't like us.”

I’m speaking to the managing director of Peel Waters, James Whittaker, about the organisation’s multi-billion pound project, Liverpool Waters. The pace of progress on the massive, potentially transformative scheme has long-since drawn criticism, but Whittaker is adamant: these critiques simply aren’t fair.

It’s a rarity to get on the record comments like this from a man like Whittaker. Admittedly, when I received the email with an offer of an interview, it came as a surprise. His father, the reclusive billionaire John Whittaker – founder of the Peel Group, of which Liverpool Waters is a subsidiary – seldom gives comments to the press, let alone carving out 30 minutes of his time to listen to criticism. Now, with James appointed managing director of Peel Waters last year, it perhaps signals a new direction — with the Peel Group’s chairman Mark Whitworth also agreeing to give our sister paper, the Manchester Mill, a rare on the record interview a little over 12 months ago. (The Mill had heard reports from ex-Peel staffers that the company’s culture had “broken down” which Whitworth dismissed as “crud”).

First announced in 2007, Liverpool Waters was the biggest development opportunity to arrive in the city since Liverpool One. The plan was to transform the biggest brownfield site in Liverpool — stretching 60 hectares along the docks — into roughly 23,000 new apartments, four hotels, and a variety of retail amenities. Incorporating Bramley Moore Dock, Salisbury Dock, Liverpool Canal Link and Prince’s Dock, metro mayor Steve Rotheram and other senior members of the public and private sectors believed waterfront transformation of this kind would be instrumental in bolstering the city’s image.

But despite Peel’s reputation as a company that gets things done (they own 33,000 acres of land across the country and had already delivered two huge projects in Manchester: Salford Quays and the Trafford Centre), there’s still plenty of doubt being cast over their ability to deliver Liverpool Waters in full – both because of perceived “slow progress” in the initial decade that has passed since receiving planning permission in 2013, and because of the collapse of several promises made as part of the scheme. (Many will recall 2007’s plans for a shimmering Shanghai-on-the-Mersey, complete with a 50-storey skyscraper, which was quietly removed from the plans for Liverpool Waters in 2017.)

Whatever criticism Peel does receive is usually confined to hushed whispers or complaints on social media. Given their size and influence, most developers understandably aren't willing to put their misgivings against a massive player out into the open. When The Post phoned up one major developer in Liverpool to ask for a comment for this piece, the figure at the end of the phone just laughed. “Ah come on, you know I’d like to,” they said. 

But last year, someone finally broke rank. Gregory Malouf, a brash Australian businessman whose Romal Capital are one of the only developers to have built anything on Liverpool Waters’ main residential development, Central Docks, came out publicly to cry foul play. His complaint? Peel had attempted to charge him nearly £700,000 to connect some of his tower blocks to utilities, when a quote for that same service from Scottish Power was just £11,000.

Ostensibly, this was the kind of story that might only pique the interest of the sort of people who read the business press or know the players involved — an argument between two developers about power cables might not immediately grab the attention of the layman. But the broader context to Malouf’s criticism of Peel was much wider-reaching. Essentially, he was asking if the custodians of Liverpool’s most valuable land – and the city’s best shot at widescale regeneration – actually have our best interests at heart. 

When we spoke to Malouf earlier this week, his language was certainly colourful: “It's a kick in the guts, and a slap in the face, and a punch in the nose,” he said when I asked him about his utility dispute with Peel. “It's beyond anything that I've ever understood in 40 years of business.”

But as we talk about some of the controversy surrounding Liverpool Waters — and the claims made by Malouf over the past year — Whittaker continues to nod his head and smile. He says that while “everyone has their own opinion”, the reality is “huge amounts of progress [are] being made” with the scheme, and assures me they are keen to work with developers to come to an agreement on the use and cost of utilities. 

Of course, as the managing director of Peel Waters and the son of the mighty Peel Group’s founder, this defence doesn’t come as a surprise.

Contrary to the line Whittaker tows, last year chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a cash injection of nearly £56 million into the scheme, lumping it in with other “stalled sites” across the UK. Liverpool Waters’ development director Chris Capes did push back on the chancellor’s assertion (telling the Echo in December: “I don’t share the stalled sites moniker”), but it nevertheless played into the perception that Liverpool Waters is, for the most part, dragging its feet.