‘What do they have to hide?’ Ministers must not scrap regulatory watchdog Opinion The Regulatory Policy Committee keeps a close eye on government red tape, and scrapping it would be a serious mistake – says Andrew Griffith. Red tape is strangling British business. A survey just out from the Federation of Small Businesses has found small firms and entrepreneurs collectively spend 379 million hours a year complying with [...]
Small businesses ‘lose 379m hours a year’ on red tape SME Small businesses lose around 379m hours a year and spend around £36bn a year on dealing with red tape, new research has indicated, piling pressure on the Labour government to fast-track its deregulatory drive. Business secretary Peter Kyle has emphasised that the government remains committed to reducing the regulatory burden on businesses by up to [...]
We have created the worst possible system of government Opinion Keir Starmer does not appear to have many original thoughts (aides say he doesn’t read books while the PM himself told a baffled journalist that he doesn’t have dreams) so it’s no surprise that one of the few interesting things he’s ever said was in fact first uttered by one of his predecessors. Boris Johnson [...]
Ministers to change UK merger rules in bid to speed up deals January 18, 2026 Whitehall is preparing a fundamental reset of the UK’s merger control regime, as ministers seek to accelerate deal-making and strip back some red tape for businesses. The Department for Business and Trade is expected to outline plans this week that would significantly change how the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reviews takeovers and sector-wide competition [...]
FCA boss: Treasury and MPs slowing deregulation push December 16, 2025 The pedestrian pace of government and parliament is preventing City watchdogs from introducing pro-growth measures fast enough, the boss of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said as he called for the introduction of statutory timetables to ensure the Treasury ratifies deregulation faster. Nikhil Rathi told the Treasury Committee that the FCA was “moving as [...]
Millions more to get financial advice as part of FCA red tape shake-up December 11, 2025 More than 18m savers will benefit from more detailed advice on their investments and pension in the next decade as part of a radical shake-up of financial red tape that the City watchdog has hailed as “game-changing”. The Financial Conduct Authority’s ‘targeted support programme’ will give financial services firms the ability to give tailored suggestions [...]
Andrew Griffith: ‘Tell us which City rules to slash’ November 10, 2025 Look at a UK companies’ annual report today and you will find a lengthy tome more likely to resemble a doorstop than something to provoke interest or excitement from investors. Much of this is the result of a vast expansion of corporate reporting requirements placed on businesses, starting with Labour’s Companies Act 2006 and pursued [...]
Conservatives pledge to scrap ‘stifling’ ESG reporting for British businesses November 9, 2025 The Conservatives have pledged to scrap all mandatory reporting related to sustainability and climate change as they focus on business-friendly policy commitments. The party has argued that environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting has “mutated” into a thicket of red tape which reduces the competitiveness of British business. “[There] is no evidence that [reporting measures] [...]
London’s £10bn data centre boom accelerates amid AI power crunch November 7, 2025 London’s data centre sector is entering a new phase of expansion, with three major schemes worth over £10bn revealed in the past week. The projects, all located in and around the capital, aim to serve the growing computing needs of the City, tech firms, and the broader UK economy, particularly AI workloads. The developments are [...]
British SMEs locked out of trade deal benefits as red tape bites November 3, 2025 Britain’s small businesses are failing to reap the rewards of the government’s post-Brexit trade deals, as red tape, tariffs, and weak confidence leave exports flatlining and financial distress mounting across SMEs, according to a new report. New figures from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) show that 84 per cent of firms with fewer than [...]