Our borough is situated in Merseyside and is proud to be part of the Liverpool City Region. It covers an area of 136 square kilometres and is home to over 185,000 people with approximately 4,800 businesses based in the borough.
Situated in the heart of the north west, halfway between Manchester and Liverpool with excellent rail and road connectivity it is ideally placed to take advantage of its many strengths and potential opportunities.
It is a place with a strong identity and cultural history, rooted in its world-famous rugby league team and its industrial heritage. The borough also has a strong arts and culture scene and is home to two Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations. Its residents are extremely proud of the borough, its history, and its sporting prowess. Its semi-rural nature, with over 65% of the area being green belt, which makes for a very attractive place to live, with strong growth in new housing and increasing numbers of people choosing to live here thanks to the connectivity to the cities, beautiful countryside, lower house prices and friendly communities.
The main town in the borough is also called St Helens. Its second town is the historic market town of Earlestown/Newton-le-Willows.
The borough is undergoing a huge transformational programme with more than £2003m invested across a range of projects over the next 3 to 4 years. This programme includes the once in a generation redevelopment of both borough's town centres. The council has partnered with the English Cities Fund (ECF) to develop the towns. Phase one of the multi-million-pound St Helens town centre regeneration includes a new market hall, smaller retail units, a new Hampton by Hilton Hotel, new homes, a new transport interchange and a new Gamble Square - a pedestrianised public realm space.
The historic market town of Earlestown, home to the oldest working market in the country, is also undergoing regeneration, including the creation of a new covered market canopy to provide cover for up to 60 market stalls, a new pedestrianised public square, upgrades to Market Street and the complete refurbishment of the 125-year-old, Grade II listed, Earlestown Town Hall. The market square, canopy and town hall refurbishment were granted Reserved Matters Planning Permission and construction work is due to start in Spring 2025.
Our town centres are just part of our transformation. As part of the Liverpool City Region Life Science Investment Zone, development of St Helens Manufacturing and Innovation Campus is underway. The campus comprises of a mix of redevelopment, growth and land development projects on the site of the former United Glass and the current NSG Pilkington UK site. The location will see significant investment in new life science manufacturing and innovation accommodation and strategy. The campus will include SINA Medical Glass, Glass Futures, Inovus Medical and Project Halo - which will all provide high quality jobs as well as raising aspirations and providing opportunities for our young people.
Parkside is another huge regeneration project and is a joint venture between the council and developer Langtree. Parkside is one of the largest strategic employment sites in the Northwest and will see the development of a 2.6million sq ft manufacturing and logistics park. Parkside is a key component of the Liverpool City Region's Freeport, and as such businesses located there may benefit from significant tax and custom benefits. Due to the outstanding connectivity of the site - it is bounded by the West Coast mainline and Liverpool-Manchester railway - there is scope to develop an adjacent Strategic Rail Feight Interchange in an extension to the site.
The council and the Liverpool City Region have constructed the Parkside Link Road which links Parkside directly to Junction 22 of the M6. The link road is due to open in Spring 2025.
Our Peoples services are high performing with our Childrens Services rated as Good by Ofsted with a judgement of Outstanding for care leavers services.
Our CQC assessment was undertaken by inspectors in December 2024 and the report is awaited. Our Public Health services are strong and seek to tackle our agenda of health inequalities
