The Mayor’s team had spent months preparing the bid and had received good initial feedback.
A council spokesman: “Naturally we are disappointed our bid was not successful. All the feedback and initial appraisal we had during the bidding stage was extremely positive and we were surprised by the decision.
“A number of other projects in the city and wider city region were successful, and this is to be welcomed.
“The most important step now is to maintain the momentum in the city in order to realise some of the great opportunities and investments with private sector partners.
“We are therefore in discussions with Government about other ways in which we can secure funding and will be lobbying hard to make the case for Liverpool.”
RGF bids are administered by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Lord Heseltine chairs an independent advisory panel which makes recommendations to ministers on which bids to support.
In the latest round of RGF funding, 27 projects and programmes were awarded £142m.
The fact the LEP’s bid was successful will have done little to dampen tensions with Liverpool council.
There is a sense that the government is desperate to provide funding to LEPs and make them a success. But also there is frustration in the council that having adopted the government’s preferred mayoral model, funding has not been provided to help support Mayor Anderson’s priorities.
It is possible the LEP programme could be widened with more money to include Liverpool, but no deal has been reached.
The LEP programme is expected to fund investments of between £100,000 and £750,000, and money will start being handed out next summer. A BIS Spokesperson said: “The third round for the Regional Growth Fund was extremely competitive which meant that only the best bids could be supported – those that could deliver sustainable jobs and create investment and growth for the long term.
“In the Liverpool city region there were are a number of bids that were selected which will be of direct benefit to the city, including RedX Pharma and the School of Tropical Medicine.”
