Local enterprise partnerships hoping to inherit regional development agency land and property were dealt a blow after Vince Cable said there was no “vast honeypot” to be handed out.

Mr Cable was in Coventry for a high-level ministerial visit along with Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles to address representatives from the partnerships set up to replace bodies like Advantage West Midlands (AWM).

Ministers were quizzed on plans for regional development agency (RDA) assets which, in Birmingham, include parts of Longbridge, Edgbaston Cricket Ground and the Pebble Mill site currently owned by AWM.

But Mr Cable downplayed hopes of a windfall for LEPs, which do not have any cash of their own, as the regional development agencies’ assets are to be used to settle their liabilities.

Mr Cable said: “We are going very carefully through regional development agency assets and as far as we can see some of the RDAs have negative net worth.

“There is no vast honeypot.”

He said there were “various options” for who would take ownership of the assets.

“Some can be passed on and some can go back to the Treasury,” he said.

Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk suggested that LEPs would be involved in deciding the fate of the assets once the Government had completed its review.

“We will then come back to you and see what you want to take on and what you don’t want to take on,” he told the LEP representatives.

But local leaders accused the Government of giving out “confused” messages over the dismantling of RDAs, with Coventry City Council leader John Mutton claiming Mr Prisk had said a week earlier at an event at the University of Warwick that assets would be distributed among LEPs.

Coun Mutton said he was particularly interested in the fate of the Jaguar Browns Lane site and the Ansty Park development.