Regional Growth Fund

Business, Innovation and Skills written statement – made at on 21 May 2013.

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Photo of Michael Fallon Michael Fallon The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change

Round 4 of the Regional Growth Fund closed in March and we received 309 bids, competing for a share of £350 million. The region which submitted the most bids was the North West, but there was a strong regional spread of applications across England.

Round 4 bids are now being appraised and will be reviewed by the independent advisory panel, chaired by my noble Friend Lord Heseltine. The panel will make recommendations to the ministerial group led by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and we hope that we will be able to announce selected bidders in the summer.

Rounds 1, 2 and 3

I would also like to take the opportunity to update the House on progress of the previous RGF rounds.

In total £1,920.9 million of RGF cash is available to businesses through RGF projects and programmes and over £800 million of private sector cash has already been invested thanks to this commitment of support. This will stimulate local economies and provide much needed growth and jobs. A summary of money available in each English region is at annex A.

The pace of RGF has significantly increased and we have enabled the private sector to invest its own money into projects in England, creating and protecting jobs and supporting the Government’s industrial strategy to rebalance the economy.

We remain committed to ensuring money continues to be made available quickly, and companies can access RGF awards as soon as they agree a final offer with us. A total of 98% of projects and programmes from rounds 1 and 2 have agreed final offers and for round 3, 92% of awards have been finalised.

Withdrawn bids

I am publishing the most recent list of bidders who have withdrawn at annex B; updated from my written ministerial statement of 11 February 2013, Hansard, column 33WS. As stated previously, the withdrawal of a small proportion of bids is to be expected given the robustness of the contracting process.

Money from withdrawals is recycled into the RGF. Ministers can use this flexibly to encourage growth through specific economic opportunities or to respond to economic challenges in vulnerable parts of the country. In exceptional circumstances this will take place outside the normal bidding process, although detailed due diligence requirements will still need to be met.

Annex A – Finalised Awards by Region from Rounds 1,2 & 3
Region Award Amount in millions (Finalised)
North West £309.3
North East £235.3
Yorkshire and the Humber £218.7
West Midlands £255.7
East Midlands £112.5
East of England £41.1
South East £119.6
South West £180.1

This is the money currently available in each region for business to draw down as agreements have been finalised up to these values.

The remainder of the money available is with the nationally run RGF programmes and totals £439.4 million.

Annex B - Withdrawn projects

A number of bidders have withdrawn since the last published list (February 2013). The withdrawal of a small proportion of bids is to be expected given the robustness of the contracting process.

Bidders may withdraw a project or programme for any reason. Commonly these include global market conditions; realisation through the due diligence process that the project could not be supported (including on state aid grounds); and changes in senior management or parent company strategy.

The alphabetical list of withdrawn bids to be published as an annex to the written ministerial statement is below. Those highlighted in bold denote the new withdrawals.

No Name of Beneficiary Round No Name of Beneficiary Round
1 A&P Tyne Ltd 2 33 Kilgour Metal Treatments 3
2 Ames Goldsmith UK Ltd 1 31 LNX Distribution Ltd/Elonex 2
3 BCM Ltd 3 32 Marlow Foods Ltd 3
4 BRM Packaging Ltd 3 33 Messier-Dowty Ltd 1
5 C&C Baseline Ltd 2 34 Nissan UK P3 1
6 Caparo Precision Strip 2 35 Northern Tissue Group Ltd 2
7 Carlton & Co 2 36 Pailton Engineering Ltd 3
8 Cleveland Potash Ltd 1 37 PD Teesport Ltd 2
9 (1)CE3 - Conitech 1 38 Pilkington United Kingdom Ltd 2
10 CE4 – Verta Energy 1 39 PMT Industries Ltd 3
11 Cumbrian Holdings 1 40 Prom Chem Ltd 3
12 Cummins Generator Technologies Ltd 3 41 Rapiscan Systems 2
13 (2)CT5 – Exhaousto Ltd 1 42 Robert Bosch Ltd 3
14 CT7 – Aggregate Industries Ltd 1 43 St. Modwen Properties 2
15 CT8 – W.D. Irwin & Sons 1 44 SCM Pharma Ltd 3
16 CT9 – Arla 1 45 Shepherd Offshore Ltd 2
17 Diodes Zetex Semiconductors Ltd 2 46 Sirius Minerals 2
18 Disley Tissue Ltd 2 47 Stainless Plating Ltd 2
19 Federal-Mogul Friction Product 2 48 Sunsolar Energy Ltd 2
20 Fosters Bakery (Staincross) 2 49 T & N Plastics Ltd 2
21 Geothermal Engineering Ltd 2 50 Tameside/Monopumps 1
22 GE Power Conversion UK Ltd 3 51 Thales Properties Ltd (Leicester) 1
23 Guilford Mills Ltd 3 52 The Listen Media Company 2
24 Heerema Hartlepool Ltd 2 53 Treves UK Ltd 2
25 Huntsman Polyurethanes (UK) Ltd 2 54 Turner Powertrain Systems Ltd 3
26 Hydra-Valve Advanced Valve & Pipeline Solutions 3 55 Universal Engineering 2
27 I-Plas Products Ltd: Recycled 2 56 Vestas Technology UK Ltd 2
28 ING Lease UK Ltd 3 57 Zegen (Wilton) Ltd 2
29 J&B Recycling Ltd 2      
(1)CE is the Chirton Engineering package of projects (2)CT is the Carbon Trust package of projects