A MINISTER hit back yesterday at protests over long delays to handing out cash for job-creating projects -insisting they were "only natural".

Business minister Mark Prisk was put in the firing line over the failure to distribute the vast majority of grants made from the flagship 'regional growth fund', nearly seven months after they were pledged.

Just three of 14 round one projects have received the cash - in Newcastle, North Shields and Blyth, in Northumberland - and only seven across the country.

The delays, to passing "due diligence" tests, suggest the £93m pledged to 50 successful North-East bids on Tuesday, in the second round of applications, will not be distributed until next summer.

Yesterday, staging a Commons debate, Labour MPs again attacked the delays, which some blamed on the need for the successful companies to employ costly private consultants to complete the due diligence work.

In the past, such checks were typically carried out by the doomed One North-East development agency, but it has shed most of its staff ahead of abolition next March.

Furthermore, the new system - as well as taking many, many months - must be paid for by the company and, effectively, deducted from the the headline grant figure.

However, quizzed by The Northern Echo, Mr Prisk said: "It's only natural that a company will want to employ experts from outside before they sign a contract to receive public money.

"Only a few of the larger companies have their own lawyers to do that work."

Mr Prisk also denied that One North-East would have carried out the due diligence work more quickly, adding: "There is no evidence to suggest that."

Pointing out that the department for business (BIS) carried its part of the due diligence work in 3-6 weeks, he added: "We are carrying out that work as quickly as possible."

The minister also insisted more than half of the round schemes had begun, because the government cash was only required at the "later stages of the investment".

But Phil Wilson, the Sedgefield MP, said he would be asking ministers to explain the use of private consultants, saying: "I suspect it costs more and it appears to be the reason for the delays."