Region ‘did well’ out RGF says Alexander

THE North West ‘did well’ out of the first round of the Regional Growth Fund, despite winning support for just nine projects – 10% of the total submitted – Cabinet minister Danny Alexander has said.

Mr Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and one of deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s closest aides, told TheBusinessDesk.com that unsuccessful bidders should try again in the knowledge that there is nearly £1bn remaining in the fund after £450m was allocated in the first round.

Asked where the region had gone wrong with their bids – the Greater Manchester LEP put forward 24 bids, Liverpool 32 -but saw only a handful succeed – Mr Alexander said: “I don’t think they actually went wrong at all – we received a large number of bids from the North West, more from many other regions, and that’s fantastic.

“Some of those bids were unsuccessful, but I think the North West has done well out of the first round and I hope that some of those bids who were unsuccessful will look again at their plans and perhaps work with the Regional Growth Fund teams and resubmit for the second round if that is appropriate.

“The North West is a region with enormous economic growth potential and somewhere like Manchester has the ability to drive economic growth in the whole region,”

Mr Alexander said the Government had not forgotten that some parts of the region are highly dependant on public sector jobs, and may potentially suffer a “significant” impact from job cuts there.

“That is why the North West is going to be a key focus for the Regional Growth Fund in the Second Round,” he added.

The second round of the RGF would welcome ‘programme bids’ – which could be used to support funds to support SMEs, he added.

He explained: “We have opened the second round which has a potential spend of up to nearly £1bn and we are encouraging businesses and local enterprise partnerships and so on to apply.

“We are also interested in this round in what is known as programme bids, bids where it might be for a fund that would support smaller businesses, and who have not necessarily been able to access it this time around in particular geographical areas.

“There are lots of opportunities in the second round for high quality, innovative projects that create jobs and support private sector-led economic growth. As one of the ministers involved in making the decisions, I very much look forward to the quality of the bids in the first round being matched or even exceeded in the second round.”

Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, deputy chairman of the panel which assessed the RGF bids said that the successful projects did so because of their ability to create jobs.

“I think a lot of people didn’t really appreciate the criteria, even some of those who put the bids in.

“The object of the fund is not to be another RDA, those comparisons are completely mistaken, we are about building private sector jobs in regions over dependent on the public sector.

“You will see bids that have been successful have overwhelmingly been to private sector firms that are expanding, developing R&D; it is all about building up the private sector.”

Mr Wrigglesworth said it was not the role of the Fund to spend money on major regeneration or infrastructure schemes except where it could be shown they will deliver employment.

“If there are infrastructure schemes that open up a lot of private investment and create a lot of private sector jobs then we will consider them.”

Sir Ian said the second round was open to first round failures to re-jig their bids to better show how they meet the Fund’s criteria.

He also stressed that the panel would take into account the speed at which a project aimed to create jobs in reaching a decision.