THERE is “no limit” to what St Helens can secure from a new £500 million fund, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has said.

Mr Rotheram said the combined authority’s strategic investment fund is a “major milestone” in the city region’s devolution journey, speaking at the launch event in Liverpool this morning.

Mr Rotheram said the fund represents a “fundamental change” to how investment is handled within the city region.

The Metro Mayor said the combined authority will be making more than £100 million of the fund available “immediately”, with the rest spread over the next four years.

He invited the public and private sectors to come up with ideas for projects and said a “competitive bidding process” will begin in the next few weeks.

The combined authority’s previous single investment fund allocated £400 million to projects across the city region, including £24 million for the Parkside Link Road project in Newton-le-Willows.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporter Service, Mr Rotheram said this will not hamper the borough’s chances of securing funds for new projects.

“In the announcement today I included reference to the £24 million for Parkside,” Mr Rotheram said.

“That will open up regeneration opportunities and we’re really excited about what that might do in St Helens.

“But we’ve already invested in lots of other projects in St Helens and in that area.

“We don’t believe there’s a limit to what each area can get from this pot.

“It will be whoever comes up with the best ideas, they will be the ones we will look towards.”

Mr Rotheram said there are “strong indications” from businesses in St Helens that they are looking at the strategic investment fund as an investment opportunity for growth.

He added: “In an uncertain world, Brexit looming large, to get companies to start to think about investing in areas, it’s really important to us.”

Mr Rotheram said during his speech the “one front door” approach launched by the combined authority will play a key role in helping businesses navigate the “post Brexit aftermath”.

This comes just one day after the European Commission forecasted the UK to have weakest growth of all 28 EU countries over the next two years.

Mr Rotheram said: “Obviously we can’t change what’s going to happen nationally and internationally.

“What we can do is provide the conditions and ecosystem around which our business are best placed and more resilient with whatever the vicissitude of post-Brexit Britain might be.

“We’ve tried to use this pot at a strategic level, and that is to pick some winners, to try and get projects we believe will give us the highest growth return but also to give us a revenue stream, so we can reinvest some of that money in further projects.

“And it’s a virtuous cycle that way.”

Mark Bousfield, the combined authority’s director of commercial development and investment, said it is looking for the “highest impact projects” to generate economic growth.

He said the combined authority want projects, where possible, to pay back into the strategic investment fund, so it can be reinvested in further projects.

Mr Rotheram said he believes the fund could help deliver “inclusive growth” to the whole of the city region.

“For me personally, Steve Rotheram, this is at my core,” he told the Local Democracy Reporter Service.

“I don’t just stand under the Labour banner, I believe in socialism and I believe that means we help as many people as we possibly can in society.

“This funding can help to achieve some of that. We can hit some of those social impact and social value targets and we can get inclusive growth.

“This is the big prize. Everybody is taking about inclusive growth.

“We can actually do it here.”