THE business-friendly scrutiny panel is made up of a number of elected councillors from three political parties. It also includes a couple of non-political, independent members, including Prof Tom Cannon, head of strategic development at the University of Liverpool’s School of Management.

Prof Cannon has experience advising cities around the world about economic development matters.

He said: “One of Liverpool’s greatest strengths is its universities, which are important for developing the local knowledge economy.

“Property surveys like Cushman & Wakefield’s are more focused on cities with high property prices and capital values.

“An important factor in making a city business-friendly is access to decision making. For example, in London, Boris Johnson spends a lot of time supporting business.

“If you go to Birmingham, you will find a similar culture there. New York does well because its mayor comes from a business background.

“Businesses thinking of investing will look at the quality of the business environment, and they will ask whether the local markets are growing as they are around the big eastern European cities.

“But another big issue is where do people want to work. Barcelona is a city that promotes itself hard. Manchester is also very good at self-promotion. They wanted to be seen as the capital of the North West of England for business and they have probably succeeded. Now they want to be seen as the business capital of the whole of the north of England.”

Former head of Manchester Business School Prof Cannon added: “Liverpool chops and changes its strategy so frequently it confuses people.

“What’s important is a consistent strategy over a relatively long period of time.

“We also need more high- profile entrepreneurs to advocate on behalf of the city. Phil Redmond gets criticised because he’s everywhere, but he’s the only one who puts his head above the parapet.”