LIVERPOOL’S World Expo pavilion in Shanghai could be on its way back to England if plans to use it as the city’s London ‘embassy’ come to fruition.

The £1.1m stand, designed to attract the Chinese business world to invest in Merseyside, currently attracts around 2,000 visitors a day.

Now new City Council Leader Joe Anderson wants to extend its life by using its interactive video displays featuring the Beatles, LFC and Liverpool’s maritime history to attract investment from closer to home.

Cllr Anderson said: “My idea is that we take the pavilion and the investment we made there and we take that to London where we’ve got developers, business people, and investors and we showcase Liverpool to them and we actually get people interested in what we’ve got to say.

“Throughout January, February and March next year we will have a Liverpool embassy in London and then when we have the Boat Show we bring interested people up to Liverpool to see what we have to offer first hand so they can see the tangible benefits of doing business here.

“I’ll make myself available, as will the new chief executive and representatives from business that have done very well out of Liverpool, such as Peel, Grosvenor and Downing Developments will be able to give them their views.”

He’s also hoping to do it without cost to the public purse.

“That’s what I’m looking at and what we’re aiming to do and if you can do that that’s fine.

“Ultimately the city can’t stand still at times like these. We have to encourage investment.

“Help from the private sector is crucially important while the public sector is shrinking.”

Guy Butler, who represents Liverpool One developers Grosvenor, is just the kind of person the city council will be looking to for support.

But he has a different take on the way forward for a ‘Liverpool embassy’.