Regulating for growth

Status / emerging findings

• Government has not articulated how regulators will balance growth objectives against safety and consumer protection; witnesses acknowledged a 'gap' the NAO flagged, with commitment to clarify by summer 2026.
• Individual regulators have received no quantified growth metrics or GDP-linked targets—only vague 'strategic steers' issued case-by-case, raising questions about whether the strategy is enforceable.
• Financial services regulation costs £33.9 billion annually (CityUK/PwC); committee challenged whether current regime is genuinely 'world-beating' or whether growth ambitions will weaken standards.
• Building safety regulation explicitly excluded from the £5.6 billion target, revealing the Government acknowledges a trade-off it has not publicly resolved.

Why it matters

If regulators don't know how to measure success or balance growth against safety, £5.6 billion in cost cuts could either unlock genuine efficiency or erode protections that prevent financial crises, unsafe buildings, or unfair competition.

Tone arc

Opened procedural (examining the plan's mechanics) but shifted adversarial after witnesses could not articulate clear metrics or safeguards, exposing a gap between political ambition and operational design.

Key witnesses

Department for Business and Trade, HM Treasury, National Audit Office (NAO), CityUK, PwC