Red tape rage returns
The complaint that British business is being held back by regulatory burdens imposed by the government has once again returned.
Link: Hewitt admits to red tape burden
This time it’s the British Chamber of Commerce having a go at the government. The lobbying group said the red tape burden on companies had climbed dramatically since 1998, growing from £6bn to a massive £20.6bn.
According to reports, this does not include the estimated £10.2bn cost of the national minimum wage, which stands at £4.10 per hour and is likely to climb to above £5 next year.
However, the report was dismissed by the government. The figures were labelled misleading by the Cabinet Office, which said the cost of red tape was actually the value of the policies themselves to recipients.
The anti-red tape lobby has consistently implied that government regulations on business are directly impinging on UK companies’ ability to compete with Europe and the US as the best place to do business in.