Stephen Robertson: Give businesses a rest from non-stop meddling

But if this really is to be “the most pro-growth Government in living memory” – as William Hague promised – it must also limit increases in next year’s business rates.

Under current rules, this September’s RPI inflation figure will determine next April’s business sates rise in England.

Businesses are likely to be hit be a destructive five per cent increase in rates, and that’s on top of a similar increase imposed this year.

Remember, those demands are being made against a background of really tough conditions.

The British Retail Consortium’s most recent figures show the volume of retail sales and retail employment are actually falling.

Extra costs can only undermine retailers’ ability to invest and create jobs. The Government should abandon the rates-roulette of basing each year’s rates increase on the previous September’s RPI.

We need a system that produces business rates changes that are more certain and, above all, more affordable.

And, of course, that’s not all a pro-growth Government should be doing.

On Sunday, William Hague also committed the Government to “making Britain the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business (and) cutting red tape that costs businesses £350m a year”.

The sentiment is exactly right. Reducing the impact of new and existing regulation is a stimulus politicians could give our troubled economy for free.

It wouldn’t add to the deficit. In fact it would generate the growth and tax revenues that would help reduce it – but it’s not yet being delivered.

The coalition talks a business- friendly game while continuing to visit new burdens upon us – the supermarket adjudicator, tobacco display ban, extra licensing controls, new rights for parents and temporary workers – and believe me, the much-vaunted Red Tape Challenge doesn’t make up for them.

Yes, like much of what we’re hearing from the conferences, it signals the right intent but not much more.

Expecting retailers to scrutinise huge lists of old laws imposes a big demand in itself but, more importantly, regulatory reform isn’t a numbers game. It has to be about reducing the overall impact.

Repealing World War Two Trading With The Enemy rules that no one has given a thought to since 1945 may be sensible tidying up but I can’t think of one business who’ll be helped by it.

Even scrapping relevant regulations isn’t necessarily positive. We might have preferred to be in a different place but we’re here. Retailers have spent millions training staff and setting up systems at thousands of sites to accommodate and comply with the regulations as they stand today. Changing that regime guarantees costs now but not savings later.

What would give a definite boost is a comprehensive moratorium on new employment regulation for the life of this Parliament.

The Chancellor has already promised that for the smallest businesses but surely what’s damaging for a company with ten staff can’t be justified for one with a thousand?

The UK Government must also make its voice heard in Europe to radically reduce and improve regulations coming from Brussels while also ensuring they aren’t gold plated once over here.

It’s not enough just to recognise that the Agency Workers’ Directive – which came into force at the weekend – will cut work opportunities by making temporary staff more expensive for employers. The Government needed to intervene in time to actually make a difference.

And, what’s often overlooked is the impact of enforcement. Rationalising that also stands to make a much bigger difference than scrapping museum-piece rules.

There should be much more consistency between agencies and areas so retailers can deal more efficiently with trading standards, environmental health, fire inspectors and the rest. And that would produce gains for hard-pressed local authorities too.

We’ve heard the red tape slashing pledges before. I think we’re entitled to be sceptical but I do sense signs of cultural change in Whitehall. I’m told officials are now more cautious about proposing legislation and the acceptance threshold has moved higher.

I hope that goes further. Kicking the habit isn’t easy but my message to regulation-happy politicians is, to quote the late Ronald Reagan: “Don’t just do something. Stand there!”

• Stephen Robertson is director general of the British Retail Consortium.