Tories 'light touch' for small business

The Conservatives pledged a 'lighter touch' on regulations to ease the burden on small businesses at one of the few events for the small business community at the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool.

Opposition spokesman for Trade and Industry, Tim Yeo, was the guest speaker at a fringe meeting 'Going the right way on regulations' organised by the Federation of Small Businesses and the All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group.

Tim Yeo MP told the audience he knew from first hand experience the problems and opportunities associated with running a small business. He said: "I have run a small business and remortgaged my house to get it started. I can testify to the excitement and anxiety of being in a small business."

"Survival depends on delivering a product or service at a price the customer or client wants to pay."

He criticised his opposite number, DTI's Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt, for not understanding the real world of the small business as someone who's always 'had their salary paid in on the 28th day of each month'

He continued: "We are living at a time of exceptional uncertainty for small business. Industries, where Britain led the world, are migrating to Asia. How we respond now will determine if Britain and Western Europe are in the Premier League. There is little sign in the EU, Whitehall and the US, that they recognise the urgency."

Speaking to the audience of small business and conference delegates, he praised the role of the small business and promised to declare war on burdensome and unnecessary regulations in the UK and Europe.

He said: "Small businesses have been the main engine of job creation in the private sector. They have more flexibility and can adapt easier.

"But small business failures have increased with more business taxes that drain cash out of businesses. These taxes hit small businesses particularly hard."

Four points for a lighter Tory touch

He made four deregulatory commitments to the small business community from the next Conservative Government:

• regulation should always be proportionate to risk;
  
• never legislate when there is an alternative;
  
• thresholds to give small businesses a lighter regulatory touch;
  
• never 'gold-plate' EU regulations and legislation.

Regulations to abolish

He said that before the next General Election, he intended to publish a list of regulations which he wanted to abolish.

If members of the UKTECH network want to list their suggestions – and reasons or evidence of specific difficulties – relating to regulations which should be considered by Mr Yeo's team, we will collate them and forward them to the Shadow DTI team as an input to their thinking.