Red tape ‘costs businesses £1 trillion’

The cost of red tape on businesses has been revealed.

A new report published this week shows that the cumulative expenditure as a result of bureaucratic systems is £1 trillion, the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) reports.

The study, undertaken by Eurochambres, also estimated that the annual cost of all regulations within the European Union (EU) represents over 12 per cent of the EU gross domestic product.

Commenting on the new findings, Francis Chittenden, professor at Manchester Business School and co-author of the study, stated that high levels of regulations impede EU competitiveness.

“EU regulations are largely driven by political considerations with inadequate assessment of the impacts on business and the economy,” he said.

David Frost, director general of the BCC, said that over-regulation is a “massive burden” on business in the EU and called for a moratorium on the creation of new business law.

In related news, manufacturing and construction sectors were recently identified by the BCC as having experienced a slump during the first quarter of 2009.