Tories plan £14bn red tape savings

Sunday, 12 August 2007 12:00 AM

The Conservative party hopes to save businesses £14 billion by reducing regulation requirements, a report claims.

A forthcoming report recommends an annual "deregulation round" for Whitehall departments, the breaking up of "natural monopolies" and the repeal of many plans proposed by Brussels and the Labour government, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

John Redwood, who served in Margaret Thatcher's government, has drawn up the paper. He told the newspaper: "This would be the biggest attempt at tackling deregulation ever made by a British government.

"British business would get a saving of £14 billion a year, which would be a tax cut by any other name," he added.

The wide-ranging plans hope to cut costs by removing legislation and seek to repeal working time regulations set by Brussels as well as data protection laws.

The minister also calls for BAA's common ownership of the nation's major airports to be ended and for the introduction of more competition. More competition for the water industry and the scrapping of the BBC's licence fee, which he labeled a "poll tax", are also on the cards.

In other measures aimed at simplifying business procedures, Mr Redwood has called for the scrapping of the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, a reduction in regulation requirements in the financial services industry and a simplified system for submitting tax records.

He has also called for the abolition of the government's controversial Home Information Packs.

The report, which is expected to be endorsed by David Cameron, comes a day after polls showed that Labour had widened its lead over the Tories to five points.

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• regulation
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• uk competitiveness