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Liverpool film studios: University pulls out of Littlewoods project

Liverpool City Council Aerial view of proposed Littlewoods StudiosLiverpool City Council
Liverpool City Council said the withdrawal was "regrettable but it makes no material difference"

One of the main clients for a proposed film studio development in Liverpool has pulled out of the project.

Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) was to be a main tenant at the former Littlewoods Pools building.

However, LJMU said it had now decided not to lease space and will instead concentrate on its existing facilities.

Liverpool City Council, which owns the land, said LJMU's withdrawal was "regrettable but it makes no material difference to the planned remediation".

Liverpool City Region is due to approve a payment of £8m to help the first phase in restoring the building, which has been vacant for decades and had its roof badly damaged by fire in 2018.

The other proposed "anchor tenant" for the site is the commercial film production company, Twickenham Studios.

A LJMU spokesman said the project was "remarkable... and the university is fully supportive of the transformational potential it has for film and TV industries in the city and the opportunities it will create".

He said screen, creative, digital and media disciplines were "an important part of our portfolio", but it had decided that "to provide our digital and creative arts students with an exceptional university experience, we will continue to invest in our existing city campus facilities [and] will not be leasing space in the Littlewoods project".

The city council said it would now speak to other education providers about whether they want to be involved in the scheme, which is being implemented with developer Capital & Centric (C&C).

C&C's Adam Higgins said LJMU's decision "doesn't change the overall vision and there will still be an education provider whether the university are involved or not".

"Littlewoods will become one of the biggest film and television complexes in the UK, cementing Liverpool's position at the forefront of the UK's creative industry," he said.

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