Not all regulations are bad for business

Red tape or smart regulation? Sarah Whittle, human resources and operations director of communications agency Freshwater, on why rules still matter for business and society

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IT HAS long been routine in business circles to decry regulation in general as red tape and to argue that it slows growth and obstructs innovation.

This issue has been thrust into the spotlight again when Prime Minister Keir Starmer took to social media at the end of last month to claim excessive red tape was costing firms money, saying: "We are investing in Britain's future by cutting the red tape that holds businesses back."

The post echoed UK Labour's wider message of building a "pro-business, pro-growth" government.

On the same day, Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the first UK regional investment summit in Birmingham the government would launch a blitz on unnecessary business bureaucracy, claiming a cut in the administrative costs of regulation could save firms £6bn a year by the end of this parliament.

This was music to the ears of many business-people. Ask them and they will point to compliance costs, overlapping regulators, planning delays and a plethora of guides and forms that seem disconnected from their day job. Cut the unnecessary, remove duplication, speed up decision-making: who would argue with that?