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BUSINESS CALLS FOR WIDER DEBATE ON REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

3 October 2007

Delegates at a Conservative Party conference lunchtime fringe event organised by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) today heard business organisations call for a wider national debate on the future focus of regulation. John Redwood MP, who led the work of the Conservative Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, joined Stephen Sklaroff, Director General of the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) and John Wright, National Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) to discuss better regulation.

Stephen Sklaroff, Director General of FLA said:

“Regulation is a key issue for our industry. We face a plethora of different regulators, depending on the specific markets we operate in. The Financial Services Authority and many other regulators have made considerable and I believe genuine efforts to move away from regulation based on detailed rules and towards a system geared to high-level principles. But all human institutions are fallible, as we have recently seen. And in my view good regulation depends as much on personal knowledge and influence as on black-letter rules. It also, crucially, depends on trust: perhaps a bit more trust would help avoid the kind of egregious gold-plating of EU regulations we have recently seen in the UK.

John Wright, FSB National Chairman said:

“Small businesses rarely have one regulation or another that specifically causes them problems. It is the cumulative burden of ever more regulation on SMEs and the staggering amount of time they have to spend on paperwork that is the problem. We need to see a commitment from all levels of Government and all political parties to move to lighter-touch regulations, where the level of protection is not reduced but the complexity of the laws declines considerably.”

John Redwood MP said:

“The Economic Policy Review sets out an agenda for a more successful Britain. If we make our country better for business, we will create more jobs and higher incomes for all. We need to free Britain to compete, reducing taxes and over regulation.”



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