A £2.3BN government aid scheme for the ailing car industry has failed to pay out a single penny in three months, it was revealed yesterday.

Crisis-hit firms and trade unions are “angry and frustrated”

at the failure to deliver the Automotive Assistance Programme (AAP), an inquiry by the Commons business committee was told.

The scheme was launched in a blaze of publicity on March 11, with ministers confidently predicting that more than 100 carmakers and supply-chain companies would receive loans.

But, three months on, only four applications are “close to full appraisal” – and there is no predicted date for paying out the first loan.

It means that Nissan, which employs about 4,000 workers at its Sunderland plant, has yet to receive a penny of the £380m loan it was pledged by the European Investment Bank (EIB), in April.

About half the loan could be used to build electric cars in Sunderland, securing up to 4,500 jobs across the North-East, but it must first be guaranteed by the Government.

Last night, a Nissan spokeswoman was unable to comment on the status of the loan, which is seen as crucial by local MPs and business leaders.

But the lack of progress on AAP drew a furious response from Peter Luff, the committee’s Tory chairman, who said: “There are companies out there struggling to survive and that are going to the wall now.”

Warning that France and Germany had moved much faster to rescue their car supply chains, Mr Luff said: “This Government has not moved with similar decisiveness.”

Asked if the Government feared a “hollowing out” of the supply chain as the recession dragged on, June Whewell, an official at the Department for Business, replied: “It is certainly a risk.”

The AAP pledged £2.3bn to unlock £1.3bn of loans from the EIB for investment in greener vehicles, with a further £1bn of government loans available.

At yesterday’s committee meeting, the Department for Business suggested the banks were still refusing to make loans to car companies, which meant there were no loans that that could be guaranteed.

The department has the power to make its own loans to car companies if the banks refuse to act, but officials declined to explain why it had not done so.

Instead, asked about loans made so far, Ian Gregory, another official in the department’s automotive sector, replied: “It’s a round number – it’s none. I can’t pretend to be anything other than disappointed.”

Mr Gregory said officials could not blunder into negotiations between firms and the banks, but admitted: “No one is more frustrated than me that we have not made any guarantees, or loans, under the scheme.”

Ministers say they consider the £9.5bn automotive industry essential, not least because it employs 74,000 people, as well as a further 106,000 in the supply chain.