Regulating for growth

When regulation is carried out well, it can be essential for the promotion of economic growth and investment. Poorly-instituted regulation can depress investment and inhibit growth. There have been nine government initiatives since 2005 aimed at reducing regulatory costs in support of economic growth. HM Treasury in March 2025 published its Action Plan laying out how it would encourage regulators to support innovation and economic growth. It builds on past schemes such as 2017’s ‘Growth Duty,’ which introduced a requirement for regulators to have regard for the promotion of economic growth. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in its 2016 report on better regulation called on government to rethink its approach, having made limited progress on cutting the costs to business of regulation. It found that government at the time had achieved less than £1bn savings, almost entirely down to it counting the mandatory 5p plastic bag charge as a 'saving' for retailers because of the additional rev