It looks like businesses will be given a helping hand, following today’s announcement by Vince Cable detailing the first phase of his plan to curb the ‘excessive regulation’ of businesses.

He said: “The deluge of new regulations has been choking off enterprise for too long. We must move away from the view that the only way to solve problems is to regulate.”

Plans include the creation of cabinet committee to drive and enforce an ‘innovative approach’ to laws and regulations plus a commitment to a ‘one-in, one-out’ approach to new legislation, designed to limit the creation of red tape.

Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business, says: “The government must ensure that, in administering the work of the Reducing Regulation committee, it does not create yet more bureaucracy to deal with red tape.

“If this is achieved, we look forward to an enterprise culture that is conducive to small business growth rather than restrictive, as we have at present with the record levels of red tape that exist.”

John Walker, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) added: “The FSB has been calling for the regulation system to be simplified as a route to economic growth for some time, so these proposals will be welcome news to those small firms looking to grow and develop.”

According to David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, if Labour had stayed in power, new legislation that was set to come in over the next four years would have cost businesses more than £11 billion.