The project to transform 400 terraced homes in Toxteth’s Welsh Streets has been named the UK’s top residential scheme at the prestigious RICS Awards Grand Final.

The annual contest – hosted by Samira Ahmed, journalist and BBC broadcaster, and held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on Friday 4 October – celebrated the UK’s most inspirational built projects which are having a significant positive impact on the communities they serve.

Category winners – of all sizes and budgets – from each of the 12 regional RICS Award ceremonies held earlier this year, competed in the Grand Final for the chance to win the national accolade in their respective category.

The Welsh Streets won the Residential accolade at the RICS Awards Grand Final for the first phase of a successful masterplan to regenerate and remodel a cluster of Victorian properties, many of which had been left derelict and decaying for 15 years.

Earlier this year, the Welsh Streets – delivered by Placefirst and MCAU Architects – won the regional Residential category award at the RICS Awards, North West ceremony.

Tracey Hartley MRICS of the RICS Awards, Grand Final Judging Panel says: “The Welsh Streets is a fine example of how to breathe new life into tired, run-down terraced housing. Instead of bringing in the bulldozers, sacrificing the established street layout and embedded energy of the existing buildings, Placefirst has imaginatively refurbished the houses and surrounding areas to create desirable, modern homes in an attractive community setting.

“At a time of acute shortage of quality rental accommodation available long term at sensible rents, it is heartening to see a private rented sector scheme achieve just that.”

The RICS Judging panel agreed that the Welsh Streets have set a new quality benchmark for families reliant on the private rented sector in Liverpool.

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