Good news for the North: ippr north responds to Regional Growth Fund Round One announcements

Ed Cox, ippr north Director, said:

'Although the Regional Growth Fund represents a relatively small pot of money which is controlled from Whitehall, at least the Coalition gvernment has made a serious start to investing in the regional rebalancing of our economy.

'The fact that two-thirds of all of the direct jobs created by these investments will be in the North of England will be a significant boost to the newly emerging Local Enterprise Partnerships and the North East will be particularly pleased to have secured 14 out of the 45 successful bids.'

However, a more detailed look at the successful proposals would suggest that there has been a heavy emphasis on investing in success.

Ed Cox said:

'The majority of the successful projects sit within or very close to our most successful city-regions. There is a strong economic logic to this approach but it does raise some very difficult questions about the future of more peripheral areas like Lancashire and Humberside which have fared badly from this process.'

There are also some important questions about value for money left unanswered by the announcement.

Ed Cox said:

'The announcement has suggested some huge variations in the numbers of indirect jobs that are likely to be created as a result of Growth Fund investments. Proposals from the West Midlands and the two national bids will create nearly 80,000 indirect jobs, over 80% of the total. In comparison with other proposals these seem exceptional numbers and raise questions about exactly how indirect jobs are being predicted.

'We are also concerned that the government has not released any figures about the amounts of money being approved for each proposal or the amounts of private sector funding they lever in. Without this information it is very difficult to assess which proposals and regions would appear to be offering the greatest value for money.'

Contact:

Tamsin Crimmens, Media Officer, ippr north - t.crimmens@ippr.org / 0191 233 9051 / 07800 742 262