Chancellor will meet regulators after calling for action to restrict their scope in bid to save businesses billions
Rachel Reeves will meet UK regulators on Monday after calling for more action to restrict red tape and spur economic growth.
The chancellor argued that government plans would reduce costly delays and disputes, saving businesses billions, and said regulators must accept a more streamlined decision-making process.
Reeves is expected to use the meeting to announce more detail on how the government will cut the cost of regulation by a quarter and set out plans to slim down or abolish regulators themselves.
High on the chancellor’s target list are the costly hold-ups to major infrastructure projects when environmental concerns are raised.
Citing the long battle over a covering for HS2 through ancient woodland, dubbed the bat tunnel, Reeves said wrangling between environmental regulators, councils and government departments needed to stop or time and cost overruns would persist.
One proposal will be to make it easier for private sector contractors to obtain environmental permits, with just one agency in charge of the system, and permits being scrapped for low-risk or temporary projects.
The meeting follows the announcement last week that NHS England – dubbed the world’s largest quango – would be scrapped as part of an effort to overhaul the health service.
