Broadcaster announced on Wednesday that Liverpool had made the shortlist along with Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds and the West Midlands. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool will battle it out with six other UK locations to be the home for Channel 4’s new national headquarters.

The broadcaster announced on Wednesday that Liverpool had made the shortlist along with Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Greater Manchester, Leeds and the West Midlands.

Liverpool’s bid is being spearheaded by Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson the City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram along with local MPs and business leaders. Mr Rotheram said: “This is a massive vote of confidence for what the Liverpool city region is doing to bolster our creative economy.”

Mayor Anderson added: “This is a hotly contested bidding competition and to reach this next stage in the process demonstrates Liverpool’s pulling power as a location that offers businesses and their employees a great work/life balance.

“There are exciting plans afoot to cement Liverpool’s position at the cutting edge of the creative sector and Channel 4 has a huge role to play in that story.

“Now that they are coming to visit, I’ve no doubt they will be wowed by what the city has to offer and how they can help shape it.”

The areas vying for Channel 4’s new creative hub only will be Belfast, Brighton, Newcastle-Gateshead, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke on Trent.

Last week the main presenter of Channel 4 News, Jon Snow, threw his weight behind Liverpool’s. Mr Snow was a former student of the University of Liverpool and he said: “If I had influence in the matter of where Channel 4’s new out of London centre was to be I’d pitch for Liverpool.”

Other big names also backed the bid and they included top TV drama writer Jimmy McGovern and actor Alison Steadman, star of many films and TV shows including Abigail’s Party and Gavin & Stacey.

Channel 4’s search for a location, called “4 All in the UK”, will be the biggest structural change in the broadcaster’s 35-year history.

It will include three new “creative hubs”, with the largest to be a new national HQ that will have facilities including a TV studio and host executive and board meetings.