Toby Perkins MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Small Business, commenting on the National Audit Office’s Progress Report on the Regional Growth Fund, said: “To grow our way out of the cost-of living crisis we desperately need to see better-balanced and sustainable growth across the UK’s regions, but the Tory-led government’s flagship Regional Growth Fund has been plagued by chaos and delay.   “A potentially valuable contributor to re-balancing the economy is being undermined by ministers’ failure, meaning that more than a third of winning bidders under the scheme’s first round have now pulled out entirely while others have been left waiting almost two years to receive their money.   “This report highlights ongoing concerns over bureaucracy and delays in money getting out of the door to the businesses which need it and worryingly finds that hundreds of millions of pounds have been left gathering dust in government coffers. The RGF was set up to boost private sector growth in deprived areas but instead we are seeing areas and regions held back - ministers urgently need to raise their game.”