EAST YORKS: Business Secretary Vince Cable has criticised the "slightly caricatured picture" of Lord Heseltine's plan for a £79bn "single pot" of regional funding.
Speaking at a Westminster lunch, the senior Cabinet minister, pictured, said the Government would not be going down the road of establishing a pot of unconditional funding.
He said the preferred model was a City Deal – a status Hull is currently bidding for – which might ultimately involve more money than the figure mentioned by Lord Heseltine.
"I've no idea where it will finish up," added Dr Cable, "but it's just the model is, not the way it's been characterised.
"It's not just handing over x-billion to Local Enterprise Partnerships to spend as they wish. That's not what we're doing."
In a report for the Government last year, Lord Heseltine called for spending currently controlled by Whitehall – including housing, transport and skills training – to be devolved down to local areas to spend for themselves.
Last week, Lord Haskins, chairman of the Humberside LEP, said the "single pot" idea was a "massive opportunity to get better value for public money by removing the bureaucracy and putting it in the hands of local people".
City MPs said they were concerned about the Business Secretary's comments.
Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "I was already concerned that any new funding was not due to be available until 2015, as Hull's jobs crisis needs action now.
"But if a key Lib Dem Cabinet member is now backtracking on localised funding altogether, it would be another Coalition betrayal of Hull's interests."
Hull East MP Karl Turner said: "Vince Cable's comments seem to be in conflict with what his own Government is saying."
