Rachel Reeves summons regulators to No 10 in drive for cuts to red tape

A group of industry regulators are to meet the chancellor on Monday to discuss how they can help speed up economic growth.

Rachel Reeves is expected to use the meeting to outline more details about cutting the cost of regulation, including environmental measures, as well as scrapping some bodies in their entirety.

Her actions come as the government seeks to reduce bureaucracy, and follows Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s announcement last week that NHS England would be abolished.

The Conservatives said Labour’s taxes and trade union red tape were harming growth and called on Reeves to set out a “real plan”.

Ahead of the meeting, Reeves said. “By cutting red tape and creating a more effective system, we will boost investment, create jobs and put more money into working people’s pockets.”

The meeting follows the government abolishing NHS England, the world’s biggest quango – short for a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation – last week.

Eight regulators will meet the chancellor on Monday.

These will include Natural England – the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England – and the Environment Agency, which is responsible for regulating land and water pollution as well as overseeing conservation and ecology.

Changes expected to be announced include streamlining the environmental regulatory process for major projects including Lower Thames Crossing (subject to planning approval) and future ones such as a Heathrow expansion.

Environmental guidance, including hundreds of pages on bats, is expected to be reviewed, while environmental permits for some low-risk and temporary projects will be removed.

This plan comes alongside 60 measures agreed upon by watchdogs “following weeks of intense negotiations” that are designed to make it easier to do business in the UK.

Those measures include:

• Fast-tracking new medicines through a pilot to provide parallel authorisations from healthcare regulators
• Reviewing the £100 cap on individual contactless payments
• Simplifying mortgage lending rules to make it easier to re-mortgage with a new lender and reduce mortgage terms
• Setting up a ‘concierge service’ to help international financial services firms navigate regulations
• Civil Aviation Authority permitting at least two more large drone-flying trials for deliveries in the coming months – which the government said has already cut travel times for blood samples between hospitals from 30 minutes down to two minutes

The Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, told BBC Breakfast: “We want to ensure that there is less duplication in the system. That means that we shouldn’t have the layering upon layering of regulation.”

In abolishing NHS England last week, politicians said they wanted to “scrap duplication and give more power and tools to local leaders” so they can better deliver for their communities.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the move was the “beginning not the end” and he wants to slim down bloated bureaucracy, meaning more quangos could go.

The government has already announced plans to fold another quango, the Payments Systems Regulator, into the Financial Conduct Authority.

On Monday, Reeves will announce the abolition of a third – the Regulator for Community Interest Companies, which will be folded into Companies House.

The chancellor has promised to significantly cut the number of regulators by the end of the Parliament.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said that Labour’s taxes and trade union red tape were preventing businesses from focusing on growth.

“Rachel Reeves has nine days until her emergency budget, where the Conservatives are calling on her to set out a real plan for growth,” Stride said.

Dr Roger Barker, policy director at the Institute of Directors, said it was “appropriate for the government to rebalance its approach with a pro-business orientation at its core” as “compliance with burdensome regulation is frequently cited by IoD members as one of the top factors having a negative effect on their businesses.”

Mark Allan, chief executive of commercial property firm Landsec, said: “We have been through a period over many years of having regulation laid on top of existing regulation.”

While moves by the government were “very positive”, he added that “we’re starting from quite a low base, so to me this is more of a three-year project than a three-month project before we start to see that coming through.”