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 [...]
Labour to use tech to ‘shock’ UK economy into growth October 27, 2025 The UK’s Labour government is positioning deregulation and AI adoption as two key levers used to address its inherited ‘growth emergency’. Peter Kyle, business secretary and former tech secretary, recently doubled down on this strategy, articulating the dire need for the UK to aggressively “innovate its way out” of a low-growth cycle. “I’ve never known [...]
Can Britain’s AI growth lab speed up innovation without risking safety? October 24, 2025 The UK government’s recent unveiling of an AI ‘growth lab’ – a sandbox designed to let companies trial AI under relaxed regulatory conditions – has been hailed as a bold step to accelerate innovation. At the Times Tech Summit on Tuesday, tech secretary Liz Kendall dubbed it as a chance to remove the “needless red [...]
New business secretary should put deregulation top of his agenda September 10, 2025 Peter Kyle becomes the tenth business secretary in as many years – he should go where his predecessors didn’t and genuinely cut red tape, says Joe Hill As Westminster calms down from a heady weekend of reshuffle-watching, new ministers will be getting to grips with their new briefs. It’s not an enviable task – when [...]
Peter Kyle pushes AI regulation changes to support UK businesses September 3, 2025 Technology secretary Peter Kyle will use his speech at Mansion House tonight to urge UK regulators to adopt AI in a bid to cut approval times for businesses, as Britain seeks to keep pace in the global race for tech leadership. Kyle is set to pledge £2.7m in government funding to help regulators trial AI [...]
Employment Bill sparks SME fear over costs and red tape September 2, 2025 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have voiced growing concerns over the government’s sweeping Employment Rights Bill, warning that the reforms could place a disproportionate strain on firms already grappling with rising costs and a challenging economic climate. The legislation, billed as the most significant upgrade to workplace protections in a generation, is due for its third reading [...]
Peter Kyle defends UK free speech record after US report attacks Online Safety Act August 14, 2025 Tech secretary Peter Kyle has pushed back against a damning US government report accusing the UK of backsliding on human rights and curbing freedom of expression under Labour. The annual State Department dossier, published on Tuesday, warned that Britain’s human rights record had “worsened during the year” amid “serious restrictions on freedom of expression”, and [...]
City regulators’ growth mandate ‘pointless’ without major reform June 13, 2025 The “entrenched culture of risk aversion” at the City’s two flagship regulators has stymied meaningful progress on their mandates to aid economic growth, a House of Lords report has argued, despite persistent pressure from Westminster for them to boost UK competitiveness. In a withering assessment of the efforts made by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) [...]