THE “barmy boffin” who said Liverpool’s regeneration was a lost cause should apologise to the city, the Dean of Liverpool said yesterday.

Liverpool Cathedral will host Dr Tim Leunig for a debate on Thursday evening.

The stage is set for a showdown between the think-tank academic and his Merseyside critics.

And Dean Justin Welby wants to hear Dr Leunig say “sorry”.

Dr Leunig was one of the Policy Exchange academics behind a blistering report that said thousands of Liverpudlians should move to the South East.

In Cities Unlimited, he urged politicians to halt Liverpool’s regeneration because the city had “lost its raison d’etre”.

The report added it was not sensible to build any more houses in Liverpool, but 3m more should be constructed around London, Cambridge and Oxford.

The report was met with derision from leading councillors, the region’s inward investment agency and top academics.

Dean Welby said: “I’ve read the report carefully and I think it misses out whole swathes of what makes this city work. I think this is one of the most exciting cities you could possibly live in, and I just don’t think he’s picked that up.

“The way we deal with that is not to throw abuse from afar or near. It’s actually to say ‘here’s why you’re wrong’ and if he is a good academic and he is faced with convincing arguments he should say ‘I really didn’t get that right’.”

Dean Welby, who was bought up in London, admitted he was hoping for an apology from Dr Leunig: “It would be good if he can be shown clearly and brought to retract, and say ‘yes, I didn’t get that right, sorry, I misunderstood that’.”

Dr Leunig will be pitted against Professor David Robertson, director of Liverpool John Moores University’s Institute for Public Policy Research. The pair will each give a 15-minute presentation and face questions from a panel including Culture supremo Phil Redmond and council leader Cllr Warren Bradley. Broadcaster Roger Phillips will then invite questions.

Shortly after the report was published in August, Prof Robertson described the policy of moving people around the country as “Fascistic . . . something Stalin tried to do”. Challenging Dr Leunig to an academic tete-à-tete, he added that he found his argument “reminiscent of something from a naive bunch of fairly mediocre undergraduates” and criticised Cities Unlimited for being “high on opinion but low on evidence”.

Dr Leunig at first turned down invitations to come to Liverpool and defend his views. In the days after the report hit the headlines he received hundreds of emails, around a third of which threatened physical abuse.

Dean Welby said he thought the cathedral setting would dispel any chance of violence, but said Dr Leunig should expect robust challenges.

“There’s an element of Lion in the den of Daniels , I suppose. But he knows that,” he said.

“But that’s not a good reason to refuse to listen to him and give him the opportunity to say what he really thinks and defend them against good academic and public challenge.”

Since his arrival at the cathedral in December, Dean Welby has been keen to develop the building’s image as a “safe place” to tackle some of the toughest and most controversial issues of the day.

He added: “The point about cathedrals is that they are big enough to bring people in without saying we agree with them but can give them the freedom to express their views in an open manner.”

The debate is open to the public. Tickets can be bought for £2 from 7.15pm on Thursday night at the cathedral.

benschofield