'Too much bureaucracy,' Reeves tells regulators

The chancellor has told regulators there is "too much bureaucracy" as she aims to slash red tape to boost economic growth.

Rachel Reeves met industry watchdogs on Monday, revealing plans to cut the cost of regulation, including on environmental measures, and axe some bodies entirely.

It comes as a leading think tank cut its UK growth forecasts for 2025 and 2026 as it downgraded prospects for the global economy over trade war concerns.

The government has made boosting growth its main priority, but the Conservatives said Labour's taxes were harming growth and called on Reeves to set out a "real plan".

Reeves told regulators at the 40-minute meeting that the current level of bureaucracy made it "too slow to get things done".

"There are a number of things over the last decade or so that have held back growth, and one of them - if we are honest and you know better than anyone - is the regulatory landscape," she said.

Reeves also spoke about reducing the duplication of work done by regulators.

In its latest forecast, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) cut its predictions for UK growth to 1.4% in 2025, from its previous forecast of 1.7%, and to 1.2% in 2026, down from 1.3%.

However, the forecast is more optimistic than the Bank of England, which earlier this month cut its UK growth forecast for 2025 to 0.75%.

Economic forecasts are not always accurate but predictions from the OECD are looked at closely.

The OECD said that for the world economy, growth would slow from 3.2% in 2024 to 3.1% in 2025, largely as a result of the trade tensions sparked by US President Donald Trump's introduction of tariffs on imports into the US.

In response to the OECD's forecast, Reeves said: "This report shows the world is changing, and increased global headwinds such as trade uncertainty are being felt across the board."

The UK economy shrank unexpectedly in January, contracting by 0.1%, which was weaker than forecast, driven mainly by a decline in the manufacturing sector.

Ahead of Monday's meeting with regulators, 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."

Changes announced by the government 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.

Meanwhile, environmental guidance, including hundreds of pages on protection of bats, will 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

Last week, the government said it was abolishing NHS England, the world's biggest quango - short for a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation.

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.

Reeves announced on Monday 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.

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."