Bonfire of paperwork: Regulators informed to chop prices for corporations as Wes Streeting says ‘extra change to come back’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves will summon regulators to Downing Street today to demand they cut the cost of red tape for businesses by a quarter.
She will announce a plan outlining 60 measures to reduce bureaucracy and encourage growth.
The move came as Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Labour‘s war on waste was ‘just beginning’ following the scrapping of NHS England last week.
Ministers are desperate to find savings ahead of the Spring Statement following data showing the economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in January. Regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority, the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Health and Safety Executive are expected to attend the meeting.
Plans will include fast-tracking new medicines by making regulators work together, helping international financial firms navigate UK regulation and making it easier to deliver packages by drone.
Other measures include reviewing contactless payment limits, simplifying mortgage lender rules and helping start-ups to secure funding.
Ministers will also target planning. They say that, in the future, developers will be able to consult one environmental regulator rather than the scores they are forced to at the moment.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Streeting said there was ‘far more change to come’ as he vowed to slim down ‘bloated’ NHS bureaucracy.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) will summon regulators to Downing Street today to demand they cut the cost of red tape for businesses by a quarter
She will announce a plan outlining 60 measures to reduce bureaucracy and encourage growth
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (pictured) that the NHS was ‘addicted to overspending’ and running up deficits ‘with the assumption that someone will bail them out’
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the NHS was ‘addicted to overspending’ and running up deficits ‘with the assumption that someone will bail them out’.
Mr Streeting acknowledged there would be a ‘significant number of job losses’ as a result, saying he was ‘genuinely sorry’. NHS England chairman Penny Dash has been instructed to carry out a ‘root and branch’ review of regulation within the service.
Mr Streeting said that she had already identified hundreds of bodies which are ‘cluttering’ patient safety and regulation.
And today Ms Reeves said: ‘We are taking further action to free businesses from the shackles of regulation. By cutting red tape and creating a more effective system, we will boost investment, create jobs and put more money into working people’s pockets.’
She has pledged to significantly cut the number of regulators by the end of the parliament to reduce overlap and duplication.
Cabinet ministers will report back to Ms Reeves in the summer with further suggestions. Ministers will also pledge to scrap another body – the Regulator for Community Interest Companies – which will become part of Companies House. They will also cut the legal duties of financial services regulators, energy watchdog Ofgem, water regulator Ofwat and the Office of Road and Rail.
But claims that the plans will save ‘billions’ will ring hollow, with the Employment Rights Bill set to cost businesses £5 billion alone.
Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: ‘The biggest barrier to growth remains Ms Reeves and her job-destroying, tax-hiking Budget. For as long as businesses remain under the strain of Labour’s taxes and union red tape, they will be unable to focus on the priority of growth.
‘She has nine days until her emergency budget, where the Conservatives are calling on her to set out a real plan for growth.’
