Freeze regulation to create 300,000 jobs - FSB

An overhaul of the UK’s regulatory environment could provide the economy with a second economic stimulus, according to small business representatives.

The Government must put a stop to all new business regulation and simplify red tape if it is to seriously tackle rising unemployment, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said.

Ahead of the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, the FSB outlined its proposals for creating and saving more than 300,000 jobs, and called for a moratorium on all new business regulations and a rapid simplification of “confusing bureaucracy”.

A survey of FSB members showed that nearly one in three businesses (27 per cent) that wanted to expand said they were put off doing so by complicated regulation. Of those businesses planning to down-size or close, 50 per cent said their decision was strongly influenced by the regulatory burdens they faced.

According to the Government’s own figures, 60 per cent of businesses listed regulation as an obstacle to success. Based on these statistics, the FSB estimates that removing these regulatory obstacles could create more than 258,000 new jobs and save more than 55,500 from being lost.

In a new policy paper entitled Regulatory Reform – a route to economic recovery, the FSB is proposing an overhaul of the UK’s regulatory structures, calling for a moratorium on business regulation. To boost the chances of job creation it says the Government must halt all new regulation during the recession and for the first 18 months after recovery.

It is also demanding accelerated simplification of current laws: employers, it says, are currently confused and put off by maternity and paternity law, discrimination law, and health and safety legislation.

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