Joe Anderson, chair of the Liverpool city region combined authority, which along with Greater Manchester and London will pilot business rate retention, told a communities and local government committee hearing this week the decision to take part was made in order to demonstrate how unfair the proposals were.

Mayor Anderson said it was difficult for the ‘mandarins in Whitehall' to accept anything local government said, which is why the pilot provided a ‘unique opportunity' to prove the proposals will ‘not work'.