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8 hours ago
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The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is poised to launch a renewed “blitz on business bureaucracy” ahead of next month’s budget to target savings for companies worth £6bn.
With Labour under pressure to reboot the economy, Reeves is expected to tell business leaders in Birmingham for the government’s first regional investment summit that she plans to “cut pointless admin”.
Measures include scrapping a rule for directors of small firms to file a directors’ report with Companies House, in the government’s latest push to demonstrate that it is listening to business concerns.
More than 100,000 small business are expected to benefit, according to the Treasury, including microbreweries and family-run cafes, as part of a wider drive to slash red tape and regulations.
It comes as the chancellor faces intensive lobbying from bosses amid growing boardroom unease over the prospects for a tax-raising budget on 26 November that would target companies and the wealthy.
Reeves used an interview with the Guardian last week to signal that any tax measures in next month’s crunch budget would be targeted at those with the “broadest shoulders”.
The chancellor is expected to deliver a package of tax rises and cuts to public spending to meet her fiscal rules in the face of deteriorating forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Treasury watchdog is believed to be preparing to sharply downgrade its forecasts for the productivity growth of the British economy, alongside taking into account rising borrowing costs and the financial cost of Labour’s high-stakes welfare U-turns.
In an attempt to show Labour’s commitment to boosting productivity, the chancellor’s measures will be designed to boost business efficiency by saving time on administrative tasks to free up companies to pursue other goals.
Alongside measures announced earlier this year by Keir Starmer to cut the administrative burden on companies, the Treasury said its plans would save businesses almost £6bn a year by the end of the parliament.
In a speech to more than 350 business leaders, regional mayors and investors, Reeves will say: “Our mission is clear: to create the right environment for investment through our regulatory reforms, to crowd in capital through our public financial institutions, to break down silos to collaboration on local projects, and to support innovation and growth throughout the UK.”
The Treasury said the chancellor would also use the summit to announce that Labour will invest “millions more” in regional projects across Britain to drive up economic growth.
Ministers are preparing to use the event at Edgbaston cricket ground – where those in attendance are expected to include the AustralianSuper pension fund, HSBC and the private equity firm KKR – to unveil £10bn of private sector investment in the UK economy.
The bulk of this announcement is, however, drawn from a £6.5bn pledge by Welltower, a US property investment company which operates care homes across the UK, in the creation of thousands of new beds in elderly facilities.
The US-based firm last year agreed to buy Care UK, one of Britain’s largest care home chains, in a deal first reported by the Guardian at a time of growing lobbying by private providers for a greater role in the NHS.
