Regions fear loss of development agencies Regional growth is stuck in "chaos and confusion," Labour has said as eight regional development agencies closing their doors on Saturday, handing back many of their powers to Whitehall. Chuka Umunna MP, Labour's shadow business secretary, condemned "chaos, confusion and delay" at the government's £2.4bn fund to help businesses, and added:. It is clear that ministers lack the effective plan we need to get growth and jobs back across the country. IN UK Business The coalition government saw the RDAs, which covered what they deemed artificial geographic areas, as expensive, unaccountable and bureaucratic quangos, wasting much of their £2.2bn annual budget. Others agreed. The Institute of Directors supported abolition nationally. Jonathan Straight, chief executive of Leeds-based Straight, which makes recycling containers and wheeled bins, said RDAs would not be missed. "You could be a bit dubious about businesses that feel they need that kind of assistance," he said. But many regional business leaders say they have left a gap just when they are most needed. They had the authority to make things happen. They had money and power. It gave them the leadership and authority to speak on the region's behalf," said James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the north east chamber of commerce. In his region - England's poorest - "a head of steam" built up by One North East in the renewable energy sector has dissipated, he said. The recent decision by Spain's Gamesa to choose Leith for a £125m turbine manufacturing plant rather than Hartlepool aggravated fears that Scotland, which still has a well-funded, powerful agency, was winning the fight for inward investment. If you look at all the successful supply chains in our industry - whether in Germany or the US - they all operate on a regional basis Jason Aldridge, Arrowsmith Engineering The government has opted to back smaller scale, city-focused economic development, with local enterprise partnerships, business led bodies with little funding or dedicated staff. Ministers have also favoured open competition with the £2.4bn regional growth fund open to all. So far it has awarded £1.4bn provisionally to 176 bidders which it says will leverage more than £7.5bn of private sector investment. London-based departments have taken control over European regional and rural funding - worth £9bn between 2007-13 - and areas such as R&D grants and venture capital. Some assets have been sold while most of the rest, worth £300m, were transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency last year, along with 500 staff to manage them. And 2,200 staff have been made redundant or retired, losing skills and experience built over a decade, critics say. Gordon Marsden, Labour MP for Blackpool South and its regional policy spokesman, said: "Despite saying setting the regions free was a part of RDA abolition, many powers have been centralised as a result." Jason Aldridge, managing director of Arrowsmith Engineering, an aerospace component maker in Coventry, said: "If you look at all the successful supply chains in our industry - whether in Germany or the US - they all operate on a regional basis. I think the new structures undermine the region. Labour said just 60 per cent of successful RGF bidders in round one had been awarded their money almost a year after they were approved. However, a spokesman for the Department for Business said while just 27 of 50 round one bidders had access to their funding so did 21 from round two and disbursement was on schedule. He said LEPs, the online Business Link service, 24 enterprise zones and a network of "Catapult Centres" linking business and academia provided "a range of programmes that are supporting growth and giving best value for money for the taxpayer." Joe Dwek, former chairman and chief executive of Bodycote, the metal treatment specialist, and a board member of the Northwest RDA said RDAs had provided value for money. A Pricewaterhouse Coopers report in 2009 found they generated £4.50 in economic benefits for every £1 spent. He said that while cities could compete with each other for investment, smaller towns and rural areas would get left behind. Their problem was they were a Labour creation under a Conservative government. They will be reinvented some day.