Red tape is a ?12bn burden on UK small businesses

According to FPB research, employment law is the biggest burden on small businesses in terms of cost – a £2.4bn burden, to be exact. Health and Safety isn’t far behind, costing SMEs £2.1bn per year, while small businesses fork out £1.8bn per year in tax.

Entrepreneurs have long since been fed up with the government’s constantly changing legislative stranglehold. Shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke’s appeal to the government to “cut red tape and get Britain back to common sense” at the Conservative Party conference last month was met with rapturous applause by entrepreneurs and small business owners in the audience.

The FPB has asked for a moratorium to be imposed on new business legislation until next year’s general election to give the government time to “re-assess” the cumbersome burden that red tape places on small business in the UK, but is it too little too late?

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