Regional Growth Fund
Business, Innovation and Skills

Gordon Marsden (Blackpool South, Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

(1) when he expects all successful Round One bidders from the Regional Growth Fund to receive their full allocation of allotted funding announced on 12 April 2011;

(2) when he expects all successful round 2 bidders from the Regional Growth Fund to receive their full allocation of allotted funding announced on 31 October 2011;

(3) how many successful round 1 bidders to the Regional Growth Fund received their full allocation of allotted funding by 12 November 2011;

(4) how many successful round 2 bidders to the Regional Growth Fund had received their full allocation of allotted funding by 30 April 2012.

Mark Prisk (Minister of State (Business and Enterprise), Business, Innovation and Skills; Hertford and Stortford, Conservative)

holding answer 6 July 2012

The Regional Growth Fund has made £502 million of funding available to successful bidders since it was established. Funding for the majority of successful round 1 and round 2 bidders is expected to paid in 2012-13 and 2013-14 and will be dependent on bidders satisfying the conditions attaching to their particular grant offer, progress against which is closely monitored. A number of these successful bids were for programmes, where beneficiaries receive funding that they disburse to projects on behalf of the Government.

No successful round one bidders had received their full allocation of funding by 12 November 2011. Eight successful round two beneficiaries, all relating to the programmes mentioned above, had received all of their allotted funding by 30 April 2012.