Government pledges to save businesses £10 billion by 2020

The government has pledged to reduce red tape and save British businesses £10 billion by 2020. It says this follows the £10 billion savings already implemented between 2010 and 2015.

The latest planned cuts were announced by Business Secretary Sajid Javid. He said: “Hundreds of businesses responded to our Cutting Red Tape reviews and we are taking decisive action based on their experiences.

“Whenever we need to introduce new rules, we will consider their impact and make savings elsewhere. Through the Enterprise Bill, we are extending the scope of our deregulation target to cover the actions of regulators, going further than ever before to tackle troublesome red tape.”

The previous government introduced a one-in, two-out approach to business regulations, meaning that if officials wanted to introduce a new regulation, they had to get rid of two existing regulations to compensate.

Mr Javid said the government was now extending this to one-in, three-out. This would help to create £10 billion savings over the next four years.

A Cutting Red Tape review is also looking into unnecessary burdens placed on businesses by local authorities, from inefficient complaint procedures to repeated visits and inspections. The review aims to save businesses and local authorities time and money.

The Enterprise Bill, currently before parliament, will extend the £10 billion target for cutting red tape to include the actions of independent regulators and increase transparency through annual reporting requirements.

We shall keep clients informed of developments.

Please contact Mark Pelopida if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of regulation and compliance.