LONDON will be allowed to retain key sites for investment and jobs while the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) is ordered to carry out a cost-cutting “fire sale”, an MP has protested.

Luciana Berger, the Wavertree MP, accused the Government of "double standards”, which penalised Merseyside while tossing a favour to the capital's Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson.

The move came just weeks after London was handed £388m to rescue stalled regeneration projects, while the NWDA is wound up quickly.

Ms Berger said: "If London is able to retain and be responsible for its assets, then the same rules should apply to every English region, including the North West.

"If ministers believe this is a way of boosting regeneration and housing in the capital, then exactly the same is true in Liverpool.

“How can they justify such double standards?"

The row blew up after business minister Mark Prisk slipped out a list of land and property assets – worth £35m – owned by the doomed regional development agencies (RDAs), being put up for sale. The list includes several sites in Merseyside:

Lea Green Industrial Estate, St Helens;

Rossmore Road, Ellesmere Port;

Hooton Business Park, St Helens;

Parts of Wirral International Business Park, Bromborough;

Freeholds, Speke Boulevard.