Does David Cameron's push for regional growth stack up?

David Cameron and Lord Heseltine find out about plans for regeneration in Merseyside.

David Cameron has been trying to spread some New Year positivity by talking about what his government's planning to do to encourage growth in England's regions.

In a visit to the North West he painted a vision of an era of entrepreneurial growth which could rebalance the nation's economy away from overdependence on London and the South East.

The Prime Minister's certainly talking a good game, but what did he have to offer?

Much of it we had heard before - the benefits on offer from the £1.4bn Regional Growth Fund and the potential for Local Enterprise Partnerships to lead economic recovery in their areas.

But there were some new announcements.

The Government has plans for a a New Enterprise Allowance scheme to help people on benefits start their own businesses.

Individuals will be able to get up to £2,000 to help budding entrepreneurs get off the dole.

It's being trialled in Merseyside initially before being rolled out to the rest of the country before the end of the year.

The Government believes it could create 40,000 new businesses by 2013.

Unsurprisingly, it's been welcomed by the Stockton South Conservative MP James Wharton.

He's hoping it and other measures could create the new businesses the North East desperately needs and has historically struggled to create.

And the New Enterprise Allowance is similar to the kind of help the Thatcher government gave to jobless people in the 80s.

Its Enterprise Allowance benefited thousands of people, including Creation Records founder and Oasis discoverer Alan McGee.

Of course critics might suggest it would not have been necessary had there not been mass unemployment, but it was a scheme which did at least have some sort of legacy.

A whiff of the '80s - Michael Heseltine and Margaret Thatcher in their political pomp.

And there is more than a whiff of the '80s about the rest of the Cameron government's plans for growth too.

Lord Heseltine - the man who was tasked by Thatcher to revive run-down cities - is now in charge of the Coalition's Regional Growth Fund.

It will soon begin doling out money to areas affected by public sector cuts.

Labour though is dismissive of all this as window-dressing. They claim it's all hopelessly inadequate in the face of savage spending cuts.

They point out that the Regional Growth Fund will only provide £1.4bn of funding over three years - a third of what the now-doomed regional development agencies were spending under Labour.

The PM did though also have something to offer the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS) that are replacing the agencies.

The Government will provide £4m of funding to help them out. But that's spread over four years and LEPs will have to bid for the funds for particular projects.

And although the Prime Minister was quick to praise the new LEPs set up in Manchester and Merseyside, there are still parts of the country waiting to get one.

While Teesside's and Cumbria's are up and running, the rest of the North East is still waiting to have its LEP approved even thought there are just weeks left to bid for cash from the Regional Growth Fund.

Some of the region's leaders certainly don't understand why they're being made to wait for approval when it's the part of the country that's most dependent on the public sector, and the most vulnerable to cuts.

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