The Government has said that economic growth is its number one mission. However, a new report from a cross-party House of Lords committee makes clear that there is a ‘significant gap’ between its ambitions to reduce regulatory barriers to investment and ‘the reality faced by regulators and businesses on the ground’.
The report made a series of recommendations echoing those produced by the Centre for Policy Studies, including the need to make regulators less risk-averse; strengthen the ‘growth duty’ on regulators’; and focus on the full cost of regulation to companies rather than just ‘administrative costs’.
Commenting on the recommendations, CPS Director Robert Colvile said:
‘If it wants to deliver growth, the Government needs to take this report and its recommendations seriously. Ministers claim economic growth is their number one priority but we have seen scant evidence of that after nearly two years in office.
‘We have already seen Keir Starmer pledge to cut ‘compliance costs’ for business by 25%, only to water the commitment down to cutting the ‘administrative costs’ of regulation. Yet as CPS analysis has shown, their estimate of this cost is essentially fictional. How can we begin to cut the burden regulation when we don’t even have a true picture of the costs?’
‘As I told the committee, part of the problem is that regulators are naturally risk-averse. Senior leaders are not rewarded for enabling businesses to flourish, yet are publicly skewered for any high-profile missteps. Until we take the economic impact of regulation as seriously as that of taxing and spending, we will never have sustained growth.’
ENDS
- For more information or media requests, please contact Melisa Tourt on 07399251110 or melisa@cps.org.uk
- ‘Time is money: How regulators can support growth’, a report published by the cross-party House of Lords Industry and Regulators Committee, is embargoed until 00.01hrs Tuesday 12 May
- Robert Colvile is the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies. He is the author of ‘Axing the Admin?’ and ‘The Future of Regulation’ (co-written with Tom Clougherty)
- The Centre for Policy Studies is one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in Westminster. With a focus on taxation, economic growth, housing, immigration, and energy abundance, its goal is to develop policies that widen enterprise, ownership and opportunity
Date Added: Tuesday 12th May 2026
