Hospitality businesses welcome Government's pledge to cut red tape

By Emma Eversham

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Small business Business Need

David Cameron's pledge to cut red tape for small businesses at a conference yesterday, has been welcomed by the industry
David Cameron's pledge to cut red tape for small businesses at a conference yesterday, has been welcomed by the industry
Restaurant, pub and hotel owners have welcomed the news that the Government will be reducing red tape and cutting business rates for small businesses, but say more could be done to encourage growth across the sector.

Yesterday (27 January) David Cameron told a Federation of Small Businesses conference that the Government planned to drop 3,000 pieces of 'unnecessary bureaucracy' with 800 already gone. 

He said he 'wanted to get out of the way of small business success' and make it easier for small businesses which were 'the lifeblood of the economy' by taking into account suggestions made through the Red Tape Challenge which saw businesses and consumers consulted on the usefulness of all regulations in 2011. 

He told the conference many needed to be scrapped: “If you want to sell oven cleaner in this country, you need to have a poisons licence. I think that’s a piece of pointless regulation that can go," he said. 

“If you are a childminder and you serve your children food, you need to have a food licence. That’s one that has to go. And of course, you can currently sue your employer if one of your customers is rude to you. Insulting though that might be, I think that’s another regulation that needs to go.”

Further action

Kate Nicholls, strategic affairs director at the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), said some provisions in the draft Deregulation Bill, such as removing the requirements to renew personal and notify police of the loss of a premises licence before applying to the local authority for a replacement, increasing the number of Temporary Event Notices to 15 instead of 12 and introducing direct funding for the employers of apprenticeships would help, but urged further action. 

She said: “These common-sense changes will remove unnecessary hassle from the day-to-day operations of thousands of licensed businesses across the country. The cost of regulatory compliance has been creeping upwards in recent years and we need to see further action on the wide variety of topics that were shown to be holding the sector back by the Red Tape Challenge over two years ago if the Government wants to realise the full potential of this powerful engine of jobs, growth and prosperity.

“The redesign of funding arrangements is a crucial step forward which will help businesses to grow their workforces and incentivise in-house development of talent according to the needs of the apprentice and their employer. The hospitality sector is a major employer of young people and a key provider of skills, so we look forward to seeing the results of this policy in the form of an increased variety and higher standard of training available across the sector.

“While any reduction in the cost of doing business is welcome – and these changes will help to realise our ambition of free, fair and flexible markets – further action is needed to ensure that licensed hospitality businesses can concentrate on what they do best: generating jobs and growth for their local communities." 

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