Tories call for business 'sunset clause'

REGULATIONS on business should have a 'sunset clause' so that they lapsed after a few years unless they were renewed, Shadow Chancellor Michael Howard said today.

The proposal is a key part of a package of Conservative Party measures to cut the burden of red tape on business and re-invigorate Britain's economy. In the third of his speeches laying out the economic policy of the Conservative Party, Howard said: 'We want the total regulatory burden imposed by each Government department to fall year by year.'

Attacking Labour's record in adding to the burden on business, he said that 4,642 new sets of regulations were introduced in Britain last year. That is one every 26 minutes of each working day, and is an increase of 50% on the number introduced in 1997, Labour's first year in power.

The Institute of Directors estimated that these cost business £6bn a year, which was undermining the enterprise culture, Howard said. He also promised measures to protect smaller companies from onerous regulation. Smaller firms are particularly vulnerable because they lack the resources to absorb the cost of regulation.

Conservatives would cut the burden of regulation on business and introduce more effective ways in which to scrutinise all new regulations, he promised.

With a further jibe at Labour, Howard added that Gordon Brown claimed his Budget embodied the principles of enterprise and fairness - 'but there is nothing enterprising or fair about the endless burden of red-tape regulation and taxes'.

In conjunction with Shadow Trade Minister John Whittingdale, the Conservatives plan to host a deregulation summit in the autumn to take the issue forward.