A firm that designs and builds 'carbon zero' homes has announced the move of its offsite manufacturing facility to Wirral Waters.

Earlier this year, Starship Group relocated its head office to Hythe, Peel L&P’s Grade A office building located within the Birkenhead dockside regeneration development.

Now, the Wirral housebuilder has confirmed will move its entire manufacturing arm from its existing home in Deeside back to the borough.

The conversion of the low-bay element of the Mobil Building, into which Starship will relocate, is the first phase of the development of Mea Park.

Peel say that Mea Park, which forms part of the Liverpool City Region Freeport, has potential to become a centre of excellence for Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), including modular construction, with the facilities and skills being used across a wide range of industries, including house building.

A planning application for the £9m second phase, a highly sustainable, 70,000 sq. ft multi-unit industrial and warehouse scheme for industrial and logistics companies and supply chains, was submitted to Wirral Council earlier this year.

Starship's new manufacturing campus will be fully operational by mid-August when it transfers all its residential manufacturing from Deeside.

More than 90% of Starship’s workforce is from Wirral.

Richard Mawdsley, director of development for Peel L&P's Wirral Waters, said: "Our strategic partnership with Starship Group has taken a leap forward.

"As environmentally responsible businesses looking to the future of the construction industry, we are very aligned in our ambitions and our values especially in growing a local workforce, and we are delighted that they can see the huge potential for Wirral Waters."

Starship Group was founded in 2020 following the merger of a number of highly successful property development and construction businesses.

Dave Dargan, managing director at Starship Group said: "We are really excited to be bringing our offsite manufacturing facilities to Wirral Waters which will mean our whole Starship team will now be on one single Campus.

"The new campus will focus on delivering on our significant residential MMC pipeline and is expected to create over 100 new jobs over the next 12 months.

"We have a fantastic partnership with Peel L&P and we are working hard together to put Wirral Waters on the map as a regional centre of excellence for Modern Methods of Construction and the creation of next generation construction skills".