The chancellor Rachel Reeves kicked off the first ever Regional Investment Summit with a blitz on business bureaucracy announcing cuts to ‘pointless red tape’ and promising to save UK companies nearly £6bn per year by 2029, equivalent to 200 hours of admin work a year. 

Speaking to business leaders in Birmingham, Reeves called for a ‘future that we must build hand in hand with business’, stressing the importance of ‘a new relationship between government and business to break down barriers’.

‘I believe that a strategic state must know when to intervene but it must know when to step back,’ the chancellor said. ‘The reduction in regulation will save businesses £6bn a year by the end of this parliament – it will save 200 hours of admin a year.

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