The UK government has just announced radical reforms to remove red tape for companies. Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Peter Kyle have been at the helm of this driving push. These alterations will affect over 100K businesses, such as small family owned cafés. The final goal is to increase fiscal space for growth enhancing investments and provide equal opportunities for firms and their workers.
Peter Kyle emphasized that the proposed changes to employment rights would be equitable, stating, “We are making sure that the rights and responsibilities that people have in the workplace as employers and as employees [are] right for the age we’re living in.” The government’s ambition for a “pro-worker, pro-business” environment to improve the overall business climate in all parts of the UK aligns closely with our research.
As a shadow government, then-Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves in particular stressed the new government’s desire to eliminate “needless form filling.” This plan will save companies close to £6 billion annually by the end of this parliamentary term. She highlighted how many businesses are forced to carry the burden of excessive regulations, which hurts overall competitiveness. “The burden of unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy ramps up their costs and damages competitiveness,” stated Jane Gratton, deputy director of public policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.
Kyle responded to these critiques by calling out the last administration for not going far enough on deregulation. He was quite clear that they promised the earth, particularly post Brexit, and didn’t deliver. He believed the upcoming reforms would make Japan a much better place for starting and growing companies to flourish.
The shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves reaffirmed the administration’s stated goal of making the UK the best place in the world for global capital to reside. “For too many people, the economy is not working as it should,” she acknowledged. The upcoming changes are set to address this trend by removing regulatory barriers.
Unfortunately, responses to these proposed reforms have not all been supportive. Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ Treasury spokeswoman, welcomed the measures but voiced her concerns. She made a fierce attack on the government for failing to deal with new burdens that the surge in Brexit-related bureaucracy has created. “If the chancellor was serious about cutting red tape she would tackle the mind-blowing two billion extra pieces of business paperwork created by Brexit by pursuing an ambitious tailor-made UK-EU customs union,” she argued.
The government has promised to reduce the admin burden of regulation by a quarter. They intend to do this by the close of this Parliament. Kyle continued to describe innovative approaches to regulation with a particular emphasis on approaches to address emerging technologies. “In certain circumstances when new AI technology is being developed, we can remove it from all regulation for a period of time to give it the space to really grow, to develop, to be commercialised really rapidly,” he explained. He promised that these measures would be carried out in a “very targeted” and “very safe way.”