Stephen Hammond MP: A bonfire of the regulations

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday, Charlie Elphicke argued that we need to reform the banks so they can finance the recovery.

Stephen Hammond is the Member of Parliament for Wimbledon. 

It is a truism in politics that all oppositions promise to cut waste and to deregulate . Then governing starts and Governments find it more challenging than they first thought. On 26^th September 2011, the Coalition Government published a summary of the progress made on cutting costs of regulation; it estimated the gross reduction in regulatory costs totalled some £3bn. This is real progress.

The Labour Government’s regulatory impositions on industry wrecked our competitiveness and productivity. The World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012 reports that the Coalition is already starting to make up some of the lost ground and is now ranked 10^th. We are in the top ten again for the first time since 2007 but still well down from the last time Conservatives were in office in 1998 when we were ranked 4^th. To his credit the Minister, Mark Prisk, recognises this “there is much more to do.”

The Government has a deregulation committee that overlooks and administers the “one in one out” rule which was introduced in Sept 2010. The purpose is to control the amount of new regulation and ensure any new regulation is offset by the abolition of current regulation. Can it be improved further still? Firstly there could be an assessment of total cost to industry. Under the one in one out approach the new costs could outweigh current costs. Secondly could there be more of a qualitative test? There is clearly a risk that swathes of costly new EU regulations could be introduced while obscure outdated and uncostly regulation is deleted. Finally rather than regulatory offset can we go further to more wholesale regulatory deletion?

Charlie Elphicke MP: We need to reform the banks so they can finance the recovery

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday, Jo Johnson set out how Britain should seek new business opportunities in emerging markets.

Charlie Elphicke is the Conservative MP for Dover and Deal.

Equity and debt finance matters to anyone who wants to see more jobs and money. Only with finance can businesses expand, innovate, conquer new markets and take on more people.

Yet the banks are not lending. It would have been far worse without the Merlin agreement. Even so, Bank of England figures show that £7.2bn more funds were recalled from business by banks than lent in the first half of this year.

Jo Johnson MP: Although this is a difficult time for British entrepreneurs, we must shift our focus to the emerging economies

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday, Claire Perry hailed the government's planning reforms as a way to help Britain's crumbling infrastructure receive new investment.

Jo Johnson is the Member of Parliament for Orpington.

In a two-speed world, in which the south and east power ahead while the old Euro-Atlantic world slumps back into recession, there is no nothing to dictate that Britain must stay in the slow lane of economic recovery. That’s why, although by instinct suspicious of the Heseltinian tradition of herding businessmen onto aeroplanes bound for faraway countries, George Osborne and David Cameron have spearheaded the new commercial diplomacy, leading high profile trade delegations to India, Japan and Turkey, establishing the new Trade and Investment cabinet subcommittee, chaired by Lord Green, and giving commerce greater prominence in the FCO.

But, as September’s data underline, if exports are to play their designated role as a motor for recovery, we need to work harder to re-orient our fossilised trade patterns, which have been shaped by centuries of history, geography and culture, and galvanise risk-averse SMEs into rising to the challenge of competing in overseas markets.  The overall trade deficit hit an 11-month high, while the trade in goods deficit was the largest on record.  With eurozone demand in freefall, surveys unsurprisingly point to further falls in exports over coming months.

Resurrecting the hope of export-led growth will be a considerable challenge, for many reasons. 

Claire Perry MP: The government's simplified planning system will help Britain's crumbling infrastructure receive new investment

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday, Chris Heaton-Harris advocated scrapping European laws that hinder job creation. Below, Claire Perry hails the government's planning reforms as a way to help Britain's crumbling infrastructure receive new investment.

Claire Perry is the Member of Parliament for Devizes.

Many countries all around the world are “going for growth” by rolling out substantial infrastructure spending and Britain should too – both to kick-start growth across all regions but also to address the legacy of a lost decade of investment.

From 2000 to 2007 the UK invested less in infrastructure than any other OECD country and was ranked 21st out of 25 OECD countries for infrastructure spending between 2004 to 2008. The World Economic Forum now ranks us 33rd out of 139 countries for infrastructure quality (despite the UK being the 6th largest economy in the world), while a recent CBI report highlighted a bleak picture of the state of our energy infrastructure, citing the potential loss of secure energy supply as the biggest concern among businesses in Britain. No wonder that 70% of senior business figures consider Britain’s infrastructure to be poor, while 85% of respondents said that this had affected their investment decisions.

We must build more. But there are three big constraints.

Chris Heaton-Harris MP: We should get rid of European financial and employment regulations that hinder job creation and economic growth

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday, Harriett Baldwin outlined controversial reforms to welfare. 

Chris Heaton-Harris is the Member of Parliament for Daventry.

Just as the Coalition is taking tough action to tackle the UK’s massive deficit, Europe needs quick and drastic action to solve its debt crisis. We must spend less to reduce borrowing and pay down debt, whilst implementing policies to kick-start growth in the economy.

A growing number of politicians across the EU now realise that many of the regulations they have put in place hinder the growth they seek.

Here in the UK, the Coalition Government scrapped over £3billion of unnecessary regulation in 2011 and has imposed a moratorium on new regulations on small businesses, but there is only so much we can do domestically; as the Chancellor of the Exchequer said recently: "We need to get them (our EU partners) to stop and realise that if they carry on regulating, then they will eventually price the entire continent out of the world economy."

Solving the problem

The Lisbon Strategy was meant to deliver "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion" by 2010. However, the British Chambers of Commerce estimated (2010 government figures) that EU-driven regulation introduced in the period 1998-2009 cost British business £60 billion.

Harriett Baldwin MP: Welfare could be localised and extra children shouldn't always mean more benefits

Seven Conservative MPs have teamed up with the Centre for Policy Studies and ConHome to propose ideas to turbo charge the UK economy. Yesterday Karen Bradley recommended a set of tax cuts. Today Harriett Baldwin outlines controversial reforms to welfare.

Harriett Baldwin is MP for West Worcestershire and a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

Taxing those in work to pay out of work benefits that act as a disincentive to work is not helpful to growth.

The complexity of benefits is well known. It can take a Job Centre Plus advisor 45 minutes to calculate whether a claimant would be better off in work.  Often they are not.

The welfare system has a range of deterrents to work: in some cases, a single mother would be 4 pence better off for every additional £1 she earned. The welfare system incentivises a leap from 0 hours to 16 hours but no further.

An out of work housing benefit recipient has the comfort of knowing that the rent is going to be covered.  Once work starts, there would be a real fear of the risk of arrears if the move into work turned out to be unsuccessful.

Welfare Reform will start sweeping this away. It is estimated by the government that it will make 2.7 million households better off and lift 1 million people out of poverty, including 350,000 children. From 2013 onwards, all new claimants for JSA, Housing benefit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit, Income Support and ESA will receive a single Universal Credit. Each hour they work and each pound they earn will have a clear, direct link with additional net income.

Charlie Elphicke MP: Turbocharging growth

Charlie Elphicke is MP for Dover.

In May 2010 the coalition Government came to office with the public finances shot through and the country in bleak recession. Public and private debt was unsustainable and economic growth had been built on debt rather than more solid foundations for almost a decade.

The first priority of the Chancellor has, rightly, been to stabilise the public finances. With a credible stabilisation plan now in place, we need to think harder about how we can make Britain grow faster. The deficit reduction plan has maintained Britain's credit rating and kept interest rates low. It has also seen Britain well placed to weather the economic storms now ravaging Europe.  Stabilisation is vital to the now. It is important to ensure our economy is based on true growth rather than debt. Yet we need to move as fast as possible to see a faster economic growth rate for our future generations in a World moving East.

This series of articles looks at measures to help our country grow faster. None of us pretend we have all the answers. We do not look at every area. It is intended as a contribution of ideas to the growth debate. Many of the building blocks are already in place - enterprise zones, labour market reform, regional growth funds and LEPs to name but a few. Others are being put in place - importantly the welfare reforms that will make work pay and encourage more employment. The Coalition deserves credit for its economic activism to date.

Karen Bradley MP: Cut the 50p rate, cut corporation tax, cut capital gains tax

Charlie Elphicke introduces an eight part series of articles from Conservative MPs on turbocharging Britain's growth rate here.

The series being run jointly by ConHome and the Centre for Policy Studies is kicked off today by Karen Bradley; the MP for Staffordshire Moorlands.

One of the few levers available to government to stimulate growth is tax. The right tax system can lead to increased tax revenues while also encouraging growth. For individuals and for businesses, tax is usually the single biggest bill and the difference between profit and loss, savings or debt. But for government, tax is the only way to fund public services.

The Coalition has been clear that it wants the recovery to be driven by private sector growth. The right fiscal environment can help by encouraging private sector businesses to grow and create more jobs. That means a the tax system that is simple, certain and competitive. This approach should also raise more revenue for the taxman – the question is how?

There are three tax areas that could provide fiscal stiumlus – indirect taxes, personal taxes and business taxes. Taking indirect taxes first, there would be a short term boost to the economy by cutting the rate of VAT, but the impact of higher inflation and personal debt would have a devasting long term impact. We cannot buy our way out of debt.