LONDON will escape a controversial Tory cull which will throw key infrastructure projects in Merseyside into chaos, it was revealed yesterday.

The capital alone will retain key cross-council powers for housing, transport and business investment when similar strategies are scrapped everywhere else in England.

Last night, a leading academic warned: “This means a two-tier structure, where Boris Johnson keeps his plan for London, but it is scrapped everywhere else.”

The Daily Post revealed last week the Conservatives will use executive powers to axe regional spatial strategies (RSS) within weeks of a general election victory.

Labour immediately warned that key projects to build bridges, roads and rail links and expand ports and airports would “grind to a halt” if the strategies were ripped up.

Phil Woolas, the “minister for the North West”, claimed the £431m second Mersey crossing, the Liverpool-Manchester rail electrification and expansion plans at the Port of Liverpool and John Lennon Airport were all under threat.

Now the Tories’ planning green paper has revealed that London, because of its elected mayor and assembly, will retain its “regional planning architecture”.

It follows similar Conservative plans to keep the London Development Agency, while scrapping the Northwest Development Agency, although business spokesman Ken Clarke has now ordered a rethink.

Yesterday, Caroline Spelman, the Tory communities spokeswoman, refused repeated requests to speak to the Daily Post, despite issuing a press release arguing the shake-up would “put local communities in the driving seat”.

But Professor Alan Townsend, formerly chairman of regeneration at Durham University, said: “It seems London’s planning will be kept in working order.”