A NORTH-EAST businessman has been handed a key role deciding how the Government’s flagship £1bn regional growth fund will be distributed.

Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, the Port of Tyne chairman and a former Liberal Democrat MP for Teesside Thornaby and Stockton South, will be deputy chairman of an independent approval panel.

Former Conservative Cabinet minister Lord Heseltine will lead the panel, which will distribute funds to projects that “offer significant potential for sustainable economic growth”, from next April.

Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, have hailed the fund as proof of their commitment to spread wealth to the North and reduce the region’s dependence on the public sector.

The decision to appoint an independent panel follows the PM’s criticism of a nearidentical £1bn Labour fund as “fiddled”.

Labour has argued the coalition Government’s fund masks an overall £1bn cut in support for regional economic development, because of the abolition of the development agencies.

But Lord Heseltine said: “This exciting project builds on the experiences I’ve had in helping people in deprived areas to help themselves and their communities achieve aspirations that, without schemes of this sort, might be impossible.”