The coalition promised to cut the amount of red tape that umbrella companies and contractors are subjected to and yesterday Vince Cable announced the first stage of the plan.
He admitted that the wave of new regulations had choked off enterprise and said that the government must change tack and realise that excessive regulations are not necessarily the way to solve problems.
Cable has made a commitment to a ‘one-in, one-out’ approach to all new regulations and he is going to create a cabinet committee to ensure that only high-quality regulations are implemented.
The chief executive of the FPB, Phil Orford, commented that the government needs to ensure that it does not create more bureaucracy when it administers the work of the Reducing Regulation committee.
He believes that if the government can indeed limit the creation of red tape, we can look forward to a culture conducive to small business growth as opposed to the restrictive culture we have at present.
The FSB welcomed Cable’s announcement saying that for some time they have been calling for a simplified regulatory system in order to encourage economic growth amongst SMEs.
There are around 4.8 million small businesses and freelancers in the UK and almost a third of the ones that had hoped to expand were put off by excessive regulations. The second most important factor when it comes to closing down or downsizing is the regulatory framework. Retirement of the owner is the main reason.
David Frost, from the BCC, was also delighted to hear that regulations will be reviewed; adding that businesses would face a bill of more than £11 billion if all the new legislation planned for the next 4 years is allowed to come into force.
© 2010 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Image: WWW2010: How a big-deal conference does open content by opensourceway
