Red tape costs business over £50 billion

Anybody trying to run a business will know that the burden of dealing with the flood of new legislation is growing. Incessant diktats, from a Government that's oblivious to the realities of running a small business, are piling extra costs on to every UK business and stifling enterprise.

According to new figures released by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the cost to business of major regulations introduced since 1998 has now risen to over £50 billion.

The 'Burdens Barometer' is independently compiled by experts from the London and Manchester Business Schools and uses the Government’s own figures on the costs to business. Its latest report shows that the total cost to business of new legislation has risen from £39 billion in 2005 to over £50 billion in 2006.

Commenting on the figures, BCC Director General David Frost said: "British businesses are fed up with paying for Government regulation. Businesses must be free to compete in the global economy. As well as the increasing cost, businesses regularly tell us they are having to divert valuable time from running their businesses to dealing with more and more paperwork.

“While we recognise the need for proportionate regulation, the government must ensure that new regulations are well targeted and excessive existing burdens are cut back. Unnecessary burdens are not a sustainable option for our firms.

“We support the Government’s current agenda to cut the cost of regulation but as our figures show the need to get this right has never been greater. Businesses have heard many promises in the past but 2006 must be the year of delivery. Employers need to see a real difference in the day to day operation of their business.”

The 'Burdens Barometer’ is extracted from the BCC’s database of over 1,400 Regulatory Impact Assessments produced by Government departments that evaluate the risks, costs and benefits of any new regulatory proposal that has an impact on business. It tracks the cumulative cost of 69 major regulations introduced since 1998, which have annual costs to business of over £15m per year.

The report is independently researched by Francis Chittenden and Kapil Ahuja of the Manchester Business School and Tim Ambler of the London Business School.