In the post-Brexit world, there is a huge regulatory opportunity for the UK through smart, intelligent use of regulation. Grasping this opportunity requires overcoming three pressing challenges with the UK’s regulatory system.
Firstly, by giving businesses the confidence and certainty to invest by ensuring regulation is deployed consistently – particularly against the big growth priorities for the economy, such as net zero. The UK has an incoherent, and often fragmented, approach to regulation across government, with departments and regulators often uncoordinated in their approach to regulation, causing uncertainty and confusion for firms.
Second, by giving economic regulators clearer guidance to help manage trade-offs. What started off as a system of clear primary objectives around competition and consumer protection, has evolved into a Christmas-tree approach of continually asking regulators to do more, building complexity into the system.
Finally, the existing regulatory regime ratchets risk aversion and red tape on to both regulators and regulated, stifles innovation and fresh thinking. Reshaping our regulatory regime as one that is focused on outcomes, not rules, can be a central pillar of the UK’s long-term economic growth in the post-Brexit world.
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