Revealed: Developer first bid £500k for council land later transferred to them for £0

New documents shed more light on the controversial deal that saw the Flanagan Group obtain nine acres of city land

Dear readers — Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll likely remember the explosive news from 2021 that Liverpool Council transferred nine acres of land to local developer the Flanagan Group for £0. At the time, one of the Flanagan Group’s founders, Paul Flanagan, was already embroiled in a scandal, having been arrested as part of Operation Aloft on suspicion of conspiracy to commit bribery in 2019 (though he is yet to be charged).

Today, The Post can reveal that — according to documentation drawn up in the lead up to those land transfers — the Flanagan Group were initially prepared to pay as much as half a million pounds for that same land. Not only that: there were as many as eight other prospective buyers queuing up for the opportunity to do something with the plots themselves.

So what happened to that mysterious £500,000 bid by the Flanagan Group? And what might the council have been able to accomplish with that extra cash in their coffers? 

That’s all after today’s briefing, which includes some eyebrow-raising edits to a Wirral MP’s Wikipedia page, as well as sobering news about the lack of commercial development in the city. We’ve also unpaywalled David Lloyd’s excellent recent report on the sad state of Liverpool’s commercial district so you can learn more about how we got here – and also get a sense of the kind of journalism we’re only able to publish thanks to our paid subscribers. 

Editor’s note: Here at The Post, we’re proud to publish everything from beautiful, thought-provoking culture essays — like Melissa Blease’s piece from earlier this week about 45 years of idolising Scouse pop icon Pete Wylie — to deep-dive investigations into the corruption, mismanagement and fraud plaguing our city. Want exclusive access to two extra stories a week while also helping us hold power to account? For just £7 a month you’ll be directly supporting The Post in thinking bigger and diving deeper. We’d love to hit our goal of 2,000 paid members by the end of the year — why not join us today and help us get over the line? We’re getting close!

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Your Post briefing

On the grapevine: It appears Matthew Patrick, Labour MP for Wirral West, has been benefiting from edits to his Wikipedia page. The amendments centre around a bullying complaint made against Patrick by a female Labour member, which was reported by Skwawkbox in 2018. On Wednesday, a user called ‘DeltaLabour’ removed a reference to the bullying allegation. After this edit was reversed by another user, who cited a likely conflict of interest, an anonymous IP user removed the bullying allegations again, calling them “unsubstantiated claims published in 'The Skwawkbox', which is not a reputable source”. The Skwawkbox, a left-wing news site, subscribes to the Leveson-compliant press regulator IMPRESS. Who are these mysterious Wikipedia editors? DeltaLabour’s only other edits pertain to the Oxford University Labour Club, while the anonymous user’s ISP can also be traced to Oxford University. Know any more about this? Email laurence@livpost.co.uk. 

The near future of Liverpool’s commercial business district looks bleak, with no grade A space likely to come onto the market for at least two years. This follows metro mayor Steve Rotheram’s pledge to bring 25% more foreign direct investment into the city, which has been undermined by proposed office developments at Princes Dock in Liverpool Waters and Pall Mall never coming to fruition. The last significant investment in grade A office space in the city was the St Paul’s Square development off Old Hall Street over a decade ago. For an in-depth and entertaining analysis of the decline of Liverpool’s commercial district, you can read David Lloyd’s recent essay — now unpaywalled — here.

Alastair Saverimutto, the CEO of LIFE Wirral school, may have diverted public funds into his and his family’s business interests. LIFE Wirral, a school for children with special educational needs, closed its doors earlier this year after an investigation by BBC Panorama exposed mistreatment and abuse of children by staff, for which several people have been charged. After looking at documents leaked to the BBC, forensic accountant Nicholas Parton confirmed money from Wirral Council intended for the pupils’ education had been used to fund Kiwi Beverages coffee shop and ASAV Fitness gym, owned by Mr Saverimutto and his family respectively. Mr Saverimutto, a former rugby player and businessman who declared himself bankrupt in 1996, was granted permission to build LIFE in 2021 despite having no previous experience running a school.

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By Abi Whistance

Back in 2021, an Echo investigation revealed that in 2016, Liverpool City Council had transferred nearly five football pitches’ worth of land to local developer the Flanagan Group for £0. That news — which caused immediate and widespread outrage — was obtained via a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. “The council gave up more than £1 million in lost income because of the way it mishandled the land sales,” Lib Dem councillor Richard Kemp said at the time, adding that “the council had failed to achieve best value for taxpayers”. 

Now, The Post can reveal that two years prior to that transfer, the Flanagan Group had entered into negotiations with the council and were initially willing to pay for the land in question. New documents obtained via FOI show the Flanagan Group submitted a bid to pay over half a million pounds for around nine acres of land, including a £26,000 deposit. In addition, these documents name eight other prospective buyers for the sites at the time, who were also willing to pay thousands of pounds for that same land.

If the Flanagan Group was initially willing to pay over £500,000 for these plots in 2014, why were they transferred all of them for £0 just two years later? And if other companies were willing to pay for that same land, why exactly did the council choose not to pursue their offers?