Rachel Reeves Credit: HM Treasury/Flickr
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to promise “a blitz on business bureaucracy” – announcing further cuts to red tape and promising to save UK firms nearly £6bn per year by the end of this parliament.
The move comes as part of the Regional Investment Summit being held today (21 October) in Birmingham – a summit which will also see the launch of the Sterling 20 group of pension schemes and commitments to invest in the UK being made by a range of scheme investors, including Nest and Legal & General.
The government said it hopes the regulatory changes set to be unveiled by the chancellor – together with cuts to red tape announced since March's Regulation Action Plan – will contribute £1.5bn towards the £5.6bn administrative savings target per year by the end of parliament.
Key measures set to be unveiled by Reeves include less frequent data returns for thousands of banks, insurers and asset managers – with regulators such as the Financial Conduct Authority scrapping lower-value returns and the Prudential Regulation Authority cutting the number of times firms need to update financial statements.
As part of the government's Regulation Action Plan, regulators were asked to develop measures that would have a "tangible" impact on driving growth and investment within the next 12 months.
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) was among the regulators putting forward proposals – pledging to, among other things, reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and improve data and data-sharing.
It said that, over the course of 2025/2026, it would monitor its engagements with schemes and employers seeking to reduce unnecessary regulatory burden whilst maintaining current high levels of compliance – also conducting a review of its scheme return and supervisory return data collection requirements by the end of March 2026 to identify options to reduce unnecessary burdens on schemes.
TPR said it would also review the amount of capital reserve that master trusts are required to hold, with a view to safely freeing up millions of pounds for schemes by the end of 2025/26.
It also pledged to develop an innovation framework and criteria to trial pensions innovation ideas and launch a hub to test a variety of innovation services with the market by the autumn of 2025.
Speaking at the Summit today, Reeves will say: "Our mission is clear: to create the right environment for investment through our regulatory reforms, to crowd in capital through our public financial institutions, to break down silos to collaboration on local projects, and to support innovation and growth throughout the UK."
