End of the road for Cammell Laird?

After months of in-depth research, a team of independent consultants are allegedly to have concluded in a 46 page report that there is no future for commercial ship building at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, UK, and no possibility for commercial ship repairs there.

The report was commissioned by Wirral Council and Wirral Waterfront after Reddington Finance bought the site last year. The firm wants to transform the 70-acre plot into a leisure, retail and accommodation park but the plans met fierce opposition from politicians and unions who criticised the company for killing off the shipbuilding industry.

It is claimed that the report states it would cost £50m to make the site suitable for commercial ship building and that it sees no opportunities in the market for the return of the Cammell Laird site to commercial shipbuilding. This conclusion also applies to ship repair and the report states that significant investment would be required to bring the facility up to a modern standard and market conditions could not justify such an investment.

The only option the consultants felt was left open to the yard was the construction of super-yachts. But for that to happen it would need an entrepreneur to start up a company and be willing to base it on that site. Although there is still a market for building and repair, the report found that the UK and Europe were losing out because of competition from the low-wage economies that can under-cut prices dramatically.

The report paves the way for Reddington Finance to pursue its plans to turn the prime stretch of waterfront into a leisure and retail complex. The plans consist of a snow dome, arena, apartments and high-class hotel.