LIVERPOOL CITY REGION - WIRRAL

Geography

Wirral is situated across the River Mersey facing the city of Liverpool. Also bordered by the Irish Sea and Dee Estuary, Wirral provides a unique combination of urban and rural lifestyles, and is an outstanding location for business.

The borough has a population of more than 310,000 people, with a working age population of 143,000.

A network of roads, rail, air, and sea services connects Wirral with regional, national and international destinations.

An extensive Merseyrail rail network serves Wirral providing a direct link with the main stations at both Liverpool Lime Street and Chester for city destinations throughout the UK.

Key Facts and Figures

• Peel Holdings has developed a 30 year masterplan which will see an investment of £4.5billion in regenerating the Wallasey and Birkenhead docklands. The scheme - Wirral Waters - will provide not only Wirral but also the North West region with a world class waterfront location for commerce, living and leisure.
• Existing maritime related operations include deep water seaport facilities, freeport zone and the Norfolkline operated Twelve Quays 'roll-on roll-off' river terminal which offers freight and passenger services between mainland UK, Belfast and Dublin.
• The £20 million Wirral Waterfront regeneration initiative helped to stimulate business opportunities along the River Mersey from New Brighton to Bromborough. This has included significant investment resulting in the development of high quality business units and a vastly improved infrastructure at the Wirral International Business Park (WIBP) in Bromborough. WIBP is now identified as one of the region's key strategic sites and is home to more than 100 UK and overseas owned organisations.
• The Manufacturing and Chemicals sectors have historically been strong in Wirral, although there has been a distinct shift away from the traditional industries towards higher value Research & Development operations. Unilever leads the way in this field, with its Port Sunlight Research and Development operation being one of only six global centres of excellence, and employing over 700 staff.
• The Services sector is the highest employing sector, with Financial, IT and Business Services all being strong. The tourism sector is also of major significance, with the sectoral percentage of employees above the national average, all contributing to the Wirral's strong lifestyle and tourism offer.
• Wirral came under the global spotlight after hosting the 2006 Open Golf Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake - at the time recording the highest attendance figures for an Open Championship held in England. The Open Championship is returning to Royal Liverpool 2014.
• Wirral is only a short driving distance from both Liverpool and Chester, making it a popular semi-rural living environment for professionals. New waterside residential developments coupled with a thriving restaurant and café-bar culture in Hoylake, West Kirby and Heswall make it an outstanding lifestyle option.
• Wirral is recognised as being an area of outstanding natural beauty. The 12 mile Wirral Way takes walkers, cyclist and horseriders through England's first ever Country Park, offering spectacular views across the Dee estuary to the Welsh Hills.

Existing investors include:
Typhoo Tea, BakeMark UK, Burtons Foods, Bristol Myers Squibb, Unilever UK, Unilever Research & Development, Meyer Group, Sun Valley, Shell UK, Cereal Partners UK, Faiveley Transport, Norfolkline, FMC Chemicals, Givaudan, Shaw Group, Stiebel Eltron UK, Hagelin UK, SAFC Hitech, Invitrogen.