Now mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson is asking for £200m of central government funding for physical construction and more than £267m for apprenticeship and skills training programmes.

A 178-page report sent to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor outlines how the city aims to prevent a socio-economic crisis deeper than the 1980s recession.

The five-year plan would fire-up more than 25 shovel-ready projects to create an extra 12,000 construction jobs and more than 9,700 apprenticeships.

Totalling £1.4bn, these projects include a new cruise terminal and a major housing development next to the International Festival Gardens site.

It also highlights the opportunity to press ahead with the next phase of the city’s health innovation campus at Paddington Village as well as a Science and Tech Innovation Centre as part of the Liverpool John Moores University development at Copperas Hill in the city’s Knowledge Quarter.

The recovery plan, which was co-authored by independent economic consultants Metro Dynamics, has won backing for over 70 leading figures from the city’s commercial, legal, financial and cultural sectors.

Before Covid-19 struck, Liverpool was averaging £1bn a year in regeneration investment as a leading destination for medical research, digital health and life sciences.

The Government is due to announce a raft of emergency employment and business support measures this Autumn.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “This recovery plan is a blueprint for a new Liverpool.

“Forged by ambition and confidence to be innovative in how we create new skills, new homes and new jobs, and it has the weight of the entire city behind it.

“This recovery plan is immensely detailed and the sheer volume of partners involved across both public and private sectors from a wide range of disciplines underlines our commitment to seize what is quite simply a once in a lifetime opportunity to reset Liverpool.

“It has been researched, analysed and fully costed and I’m confident the government will see that Liverpool means business.

“This recovery plan is all about partnerships – and we need the government to act as one too. The return on investment is huge, a stimulus package that will not just benefit Liverpool – but also the region and the country.”