THE Government has been urged to tackle North-East unemployment when it distributes the latest round of its flagship job creation fund. Stephen Catchpole, Tees Valley Unlimited (TVU) managing director is optimistic that the region will emerge as one of the big winners when the latest round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) is awarded in the upcoming weeks. Tees Valley's bids for the first round of funding were the most successful in the country, as £26m was awarded to five projects led by the likes of Nifco, Cleveland Potash and Thai firm Sahaviriya Steel Industries. Mr Catchpole praised the "quality and vision" of the second round bids that his team helped submit to the judging panel led by Lord Heseltine. However, competition this time around has been fierce, leading to accusations that the scheme is under-funded and will reject scores of job-boosting bids from the North-East. Critics say the RGF is a fraction of the billions Labour committed to regional development agencies over 13 years and the Chancellor is expected to come under mounting pressure to commit more money to the fund in his autumn statement next month. Across the UK, 492 bids worth a combined £3.3bn are competing for a funding pot of about £1bn. Companies and organisations in this region have submitted 130 bids totalling £95.8m. They include an application for £4.8m to support the next phase of Digital City Business, that aims to create 300 jobs by 2014, and 3,000 jobs by 2022. It is understood that the chemical processing cluster has also applied for money from the fund which was created to stimulate areas hit hardest by public spending cuts. Mr Catchpole reckoned that the region's jobs woes meant that it should not be ignored. "I am pretty confident that we will be at least as successful as before," he said. "You could say that because we did so well in the first round there could be a backlash. All I can say is we have really good bids and this is an area that still needs help. The latest unemployment figures made for grim reading, particularly for the prospects of young people. It was a stark reminder that the region needs assistance to support some genuine growth opportunities. "The other reason for optimism is that Tees Valley has already proven to the Government that we can deliver. In other parts of the country we know that bids earmarked for funding have fallen by the wayside. I am pleased that our five bids from round one are continuing through the process, no matter how difficult that process has been." As well as backing applications from individual companies TVU has also submitted a number of so-called "programme bids" that will allocate funding to several recipients under an umbrella scheme, such as supporting small firms across the region.