Blackpool’s £220m Talbot Gateway project being led by Morgan Sindall’s regeneration business Muse Developments is one of the biggest building schemes to be affected.

Chester Zoo’s £225m Natural Vision project – dubbed the Eden of the North – was expecting £40m from the agency that it will no longer receive.

Manchester’s international festival and theatre projects in Liverpool are also among the hordes of projects facing a funding shortfall because of the cuts.

Projects where contracts have already been signed, such as aspects of Media City in Salford and the Lancashire County Cricket Club revamp, are unaffected.

But it is understood the NWDA wants to reduce or break some other existing deals.

Contracts which could face review include £6.5m investment for a biomedical research centre in Manchester, £7m to help redevelop Ancoats in Manchester, £4.6m towards a revamp of Chetham’s School of Music and almost £3m for a National Indoor BMX centre at Sportcity.

The NWDA said it had now essentially “closed for new business”.

Steve Broomhead, NWDA chief executive, said all non-contracted projects had been cut, as well as the agency’s own administration costs.

“But we now need to re-examine all existing projects and programmes to identify where further savings can be made,” he added.

“We will use all available flexibility to try to meet these challenging reductions but the reality is that this is a substantial reduction to our in-year budget and there is bound to be an economic impact on the partners, businesses and communities with whom we work.

“In addition, the size of the cuts means that we have little flexibility in our future budgets and the agency will not be able to make any new investments or renew partner contracts before our dissolution in April 2012.

He added: “I recognise that this is a very difficult time for both our partners and our staff across the region and I sincerely hope that many of these projects and partners will be able to find alternative sources of funding.”

Those hit by withdrawals in funding will be able to apply to the new £1bn Regional Growth Fund from April 2011, the NWDA said.

All nine RDAs have been told to make budget cuts for the current financial year, and will be wound-up in 2012.

As well as the dozens of projects and concepts, more than 30 organisations – including regeneration agencies – have had their funding withdrawn.