The damage politicians do to business: parts one, two and three In a market like energy, for competition to work properly it requires much greater levels of customer engagement. Too many of us fail to seek out the best possible deal - some of us don't care that much or have better things to do. But the opportunity to switch to lower tariffs simply and easily is there. It's time we stopped moaning and took action instead. Growth fund at last showing some progress The third episode of the Keystone Cops Cabinet is the regional growth fund, although this one may have a happy ending. The fund has been criticised by the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Designed to pump billions of pounds of taxpayers" money into the regions hit by public-sector cuts, which is then matched by even more private-sector investment, it has been dogged by delay, bureaucratic bungling, complexity and lack of understanding by officials. It has been the epitome of what goes wrong when Whitehall is given new and important responsibilities - panic, chaos and disorder, rather than the calm, process-driven efficiency that a commercial, private-sector organisation at its best would apply to administration. Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, whose brainchild the fund was, can feel aggrieved at the way the policy has been implemented. However, I'm willing to concede that the fund may have learnt from its mistakes and that it's starting to sort itself out, which is good news, and a Coalition policy for generating growth may be on the cusp of making a difference. A third, £1.05bn, round of funding is being announced today which seems to have benefited from a sharper application and assessment process. In five months, 414 applicants have been reduced to 130 bidders selected for cash who have now been given three months to agree final offers and another three months to complete due diligence. Previous bidding rounds of the fund have created or protected 10,000 jobs and 160 projects have attracted an additional £4.9bn of private investment. The job-creation figures are low, reflecting the slowness with which funds have been getting through to companies. But then successful and sustainable job creation isn't achieved overnight. Money well spent often takes time to bear fruit. The Coalition's hopes of 240,000 jobs created or safeguarded from this latest round of funding, plus 300,000 over the next five years from the original two rounds, look ambitious. But progress is now being made, it would seem, and the fund should provide some good news on the economy by the time the next election comes around. The Telegraph's Festival of Business Telegraph Business, or at least a part of it, has decamped to Manchester today to host the Festival of Business. Delegates will hear keynote speeches from Sir Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of Tesco, Michael Fallon, the Coalition's new business minister, Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Martha Lane-Fox, lastminute.com founder, and Luc Delaney of Facebook. Also speaking is Herwig Vennekens, the man behind the great success of Haribo in the UK. There's a raft of break-out sessions, too, offering practical advice to delegates on expanding their businesses. You can also follow today's proceedings at Manchester Central on our live blog at telegraph.co.uk/finance. We'll be tweeting throughout the day, follow us on #fob, and there will be more coverage in our Telegraph Business weekend editions. The Festival was established last year to extend our editorial expertise into new areas and provide our audience with a new experience of being able to directly access the very top business talent the UK has to offer. Best of luck to all involved.