I’m highly suspicious of the government’s new Regional Growth Fund. I think it’s politically opportunitist, badly planned, and is likely to be largely a waste of £1.4bn.

Keen to know more about how the first tranche of this 1.4bn (being £350m) would be spent, I submitted a FoI request.

Yesterday, I received a reply to my request, stating it has been refused in its totality. This is outrageous for various reasons.

This is what I requested:

a) copies of all successful applications to first tranche of the Regional Growth Fund; b) copies of the scoring and assessment criteria used to judge bids.

This is what they replied with:

We conclude, therefore, that release of the information requested would be prejudicial to commercial interest weighs in favour of withholding the information.

I will be appealing, for three reasons.

1) The decision directly contravenes the Cabinet Office’s January 2011 Guidance on implementing requirements for greater transparency in central Government procurement and contracting, which states:

Departments are expected to publish relevant information in full, although redactions are permitted in line with the exemptions provided by the Freedom of Information Act (for example, this may include national security, protection of personal data, commercially sensitive material, amongst other things).

The letter from BIS makes it clear that there has been no consideration to what may need to be redacted. They simply reject the request in its totality.

2) This total rejection also ignores BIS’s own guidance to Regional Growth Fund applicants on how Freedom of Information requests will be dealt with. It is clear from the letter that no such approach has been made to the successful applicants.

3) It might have been anticipated that some private sector bidders would object to release of the information, but a few of the successful bids were from public sector organisations who should be, as a starting point, open to public scrutiny. Clearly, BIS didn’t even give successful applicants the opportunity to be transparent about what they were receiving public money for, and how their bids were scored.

This makes me more suspicious that the Regional Growth Fund is throwing public money at programmes which a) should have been funded from normal banking sources and/or corporate surplus; b) have not been legitimately appraised by a hastily put together panel more focused on short term political hits than on effective regional growth.

It also throws into sharp relief the distance between the government’s rhetoric about transparency and the real lack of accountability about how large amounts of taxpayer money is being spent.

About the author
Paul Cotterill is a regular contributor, and blogs more regularly at Though Cowards Flinch, an established leftwing blog and emergent think-tank. He currently has fingers in more pies than he has fingers, including disability caselaw, childcare social enterprise, and cricket.
· Other posts by Paul Cotterill
Filed under
Blog ,Economy

Reader comments

Reactions: Twitter, blogs

1. Liberal Conspiracy

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3

2. Ferret Dave

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3

3. Pucci Dellanno

   RT @libcon: Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3 @RichardJMurphy @TheEconomist @guardian

4. sunny hundal

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn regional ‘growth’ fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3 (asks @BickerRecord)

5. Starlight's dad

   RT @libcon: Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://t.co/fHq31fY

6. Starlight's dad

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn ‘growth’ fund? | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/3s1BQyg via @libcon

7. alan edwards

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn regional ‘growth’ fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3 (asks @BickerRecord)

8. neil lambert

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn regional ‘growth’ fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3 (asks @BickerRecord)

9. The Other Gunman

   Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3

10. Len Arthur

    Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://bit.ly/lSVFy3

11. Daniel Pitt

    Why is the government so secretive about its £1.4bn 'growth' fund? http://t.co/3V3jDcK #ConDemNation

• We have a tight comments policy aimed at fostering constructive debate.
• We believe in free speech but not your right to abuse our space.
• Abusive, sarcastic or silly comments may be deleted.
• Misogynist, racist, homophobic and xenophobic comments will be deleted.
• Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy.

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website