‘Too much bureaucracy slowing us down’, Reeves warns regulators

There is “too much bureaucracy” which is making it “too slow to get things done” across the UK, Rachel Reeves has told regulators after summoning them to Downing Street.

As the Government continues its war on red tape, the Chancellor told watchdog chiefs on Monday morning she wanted to reduce duplication by regulators.

Only last week, Sir Keir Starmer announced that NHS England – an administrative body dubbed the world’s largest quango – would be scrapped as part of efforts to cut costs and boost economic growth.

The Chancellor’s meeting with regulatory bosses is expected to result in further details on how the Government will cut the cost of regulation by a quarter, as well as the slimming down or abolition of more regulators.

Speaking as the meeting began on Monday morning, Ms Reeves said: “You know that the number one mission of this Government is to grow the economy. There are a number of things over the last decade or so that have held back growth, and one of them – if we are honest and you know better than anyone – is the regulatory landscape.

“Too much overlapping regulation, too much bureaucracy, too slow to get things done. It is something that myself and other ministers hear all the time.”

At the top of her meeting with regulators, Ms Reeves said she appreciated their suggestions to cut red tape, adding they would discuss “cross-cutting work that we could be doing across Government to reduce some of the duplication”.

As well as abolishing NHS England, the Government has already announced plans to fold the Payments Systems Regulator into the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and Ms Reeves is likely to scrap more regulators over the course of the Parliament.

A third quango, the Regulator for Community Interest Companies, is expected to be folded into Companies House – and ministers will be instructed to report back to the Chancellor by the summer with further suggestions for bodies that could be culled.

The Chancellor is expected to unveil 60 measures Britain’s regulators have agreed to take in order to boost economic growth following Monday’s meeting.

These include fast-tracking new medicines, reviewing the £100 limit on contactless payments, simplifying mortgage rules and holding two major drone-flying trials to pave the way for drone delivery services.

The measures follow a demand from the Prime Minister at the end of last year that regulators come up with “concrete proposals” to boost growth as the Government attempts to turn around Britain’s struggling economy.

Although the UK avoided a recession in the second half of 2024, the economy continues to falter and figures released last week showed a 0.1% fall in GDP in January.

Other measures expected to be announced on Monday include:

– Reviewing environmental guidance given to planning authorities on protecting bats.

– Simplifying the process for agreeing environmental permits, with just one agency in charge of the system and permits being scrapped for low-risk or temporary projects.

– Slimming down the legal duties of financial services regulators, Ofgem, Ofwat and the Office for Road and Rail.

– Reviewing the role of the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Some of the changes, particularly those relating to environmental regulation, are expected to speed up delivery of major infrastructure projects such as the long-delayed Lower Thames Tunnel and the prospective third runway at Heathrow.

Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the CBI, said the announcement signalled “a shift towards a more proportionate, outcomes-based approach that should deliver more sustainable growth and investment”.

But Conservative shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Ms Reeves “and her job-destroying, tax-hiking budget” were “the biggest barrier to growth” in the UK.

Friends of the Earth campaigner Sienna Somers meanwhile said it would be “incredibly short-sighted, and also rather desperate” to weaken environmental regulations with the UK’s environment “in a dire state”.