The Scottish Secretary has said the ball is in the court of local authorities to serve up a wish-list for a Tay Cities Deal.
David Mundell suggested that delays to a deal, which could unlock hundreds of millions of pounds for Tayside and North East Fife, are because proposals have still not been tabled by the councils.
Mr Mundell said negotiations are progressing for a deal for Edinburgh and South East Scotland, which takes in swathes of Fife, because the local authorities there have put forward specific proposals.
“Discussions have been taking place with the local authority in Dundee and surrounding local authorities,” he said in Edinburgh. “They are keen to bring forward those sorts of proposals but they haven’t got a detailed package on the table in the way that there currently is for Edinburgh.
“But what the Prime Minister was clear about in Prime Minister’s Questions last week is that as such a package develops he is keen to support it.”
A draft bid for the investment was submitted to the Scottish Government in March.
A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “A considerable amount of work is going on by officers and elected members of the four councils involved in the proposed Tay Cities Deal. A proposal to the UK and Scottish governments will be brought forward when work on it is completed.”
A spokeswoman for Perth and Kinross Council said a direct comparison with other negotiations cannot be made given work on the Tay Cities Deal started six months after the Edinburgh one.
“It is also important that sufficient time is taken to ensure that the projects proposed are ones that will make a significant contribution to economic growth across the region,” she added.
Gordon Mole, from Fife Council, said the city deal will support the economic growth of the Tay area and “help to reduce inequality and create a more prosperous future”.
An Angus Council spokesman said they have “ambitious” growth plans to “harness the strategic advantages of a county with major transport links of rail, road and sea and with world class industries”.
Aberdeen is getting a £250m boost from a deal secured from Westminster and then supplemented by Holyrood to encourage investment. Politicians signed off the £300m deal for Inverness earlier this year, which is expected to create more than 3,000 jobs in Inverness and the Highlands.
The Edinburgh bid was confirmed as budgeted for by Chancellor George Osborne in March after submissions were made in September last year.