Yorkshire Post Manifesto: Small business

Despite the package of measures announced in the Budget to help small businesses, there is no getting away from the weight of regulation which has risen sharply in the last 12 years.

The British Chambers of Commerce's Burdens Barometer, which calculates the cost to business of complying with regulations, shows that business forked out almost 77bn to comply with new regulation from 1998 to 2009 compared with 10bn in 2001.

A Populus poll commissioned by the chambers showed that regulation remained the number one concern for businesses ahead of education and skills and taxes.

Supermarket giant Asda recently accused the Government of "madness" over the amount of red tape faced by employers.

It is vital that the government reduces this burden as well as providing support and advice to help businesses comply.

There were 103 new employment laws between 1998 and 2008

The cost to businesses of complying was 77bn in 2009 and 5.7bn in Yorkshire alone.

Between April 2010 and April 2014, 18 new laws will come into force.

These new regulations will cost UK businesses an additional 25.6bn.

CASE STUDY: TACKLING RED TAPE

From the moment an entrepreneur decides to set up a new business there is a huge amount of red tape to overcome.

When Georgiana Head set up her specialist recruitment firm Georgiana Head Recruitment in Leeds in 2007 she discovered a tangle of bureaucracy.

"If you've already written your business plan, which I had, it's very complicated to get any form of financial assistance when you first set up," she said.

She added: "We moved into serviced accommodation because it made certain things less complicated and we didn't have to worry about health and safety or business rates. But if you've got your own office there are so many rules dictating what you have got to do.

"Taxation can also be a real issue. There are 9,000 statutes out there for taxation alone."