Firms must be at heart of red tape overhaul, CBI boss says
The government’s efforts to slash red tape and regulation in a bid to boost growth are doomed to fail if they do not consult the very firms that “live and breathe” the UK’s regulatory barriers, according to the boss of Britain’s largest lobby group.
In a speech at Singer Capital Markets, Rupert Soames, president of the CBI, is expected to praise the government’s deregulatory push, branding it a “golden opportunity” that will “drive our international competitiveness” and help innovation thrive.
But he will also use the address to warn that these efforts to slash needless red tape will “not be enough without consulting those who live and breathe these regulations themselves: that’s business”.
The government has made reducing needless regulation one of the defining facets of its quest to boost economic growth in the UK.
On Christmas Eve, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves wrote a joint letter to all Britain’s largest regulators demanding they concoct a shortlist of ways they could boost economic growth through reform.
The letter fired the starting gun on months of major upheaval at the country’s main watchdogs, with Starmer writing in City AM that it would “unleash the power of the private sector”. In March, the Payments Systems Regulator was folded into Financial Conduct Authority in a bid to reduce burdens on firms, while the Competition and Markets Authority lost its chair as part of an overhaul to put the regulator on a more pro-growth footing.
Firms key to red tape push
But Soames will warn that these practical changes won’t be sufficient without business input, using the address to encourage business and government to work hand in glove in their shared red-tape-cutting mission.
The two parties must “think more openly about risk appetite, while setting clear red lines for the protection of consumers and businesses”, he is expected to say.
The speech from the captain of industry, who before taking on his role at the CBI led FTSE 100 contractor Serco for nine years, will also mark the launch of a business-friendly framework for regulation, dubbed the Good Regulation Guide.
The paper outlines four key priorities for policy design between state and industry. Among priorities are getting the government to commit to an “outcomes-based, principles-led” approach to regulation, and a targeted audit of regulatory costs.
Writing in the foreword of the report, Soames says the push to deregulate will require deploying “every tool in the policy toolbox to get us back onto a path of growth, prosperity and national economic revival”.
“We need to set about regulatory reform,” he adds. “‘Reform’ does not mean eradication of rules, in fact far from it. The UK’s calling card for investment has long centred on predictability,
institutional excellence and fairness.”
Soames’s comments echo those made by former rate-setter Andy Haldane at the City AM Awards last month.
The former chief economist at the Bank of England used his keynote address to warn that the government’s bid to cut red tape had “little chance of success”, unless watchdogs’ mandates are changed in statute.