Tomorrow's Business Today
Regulators need better PR
On June 1, 1973, the Motor Cycles (Wearing of Helmets) Act was made law.
Libertarians and some motor cyclists said this was an infringement of freedom that would hurt the fast-bike trade.
If people want to crash head first into trees with no protection, let them.
Everyone now agrees that folk on bikes should wear a sturdy hat.
The law led to the growth of a helmet business, a significant chunk of the £5 billion UK motorcycle industry that employs more than 65,000 people.
The regulation created jobs and saved lives which saves money.
So it is in the City, where the strong regulation creates trust and jobs.
There are one set of rules and everyone has to play by them, or go elsewhere (I’m idealising reality, but you get the idea).
Motorcycles and money are only two areas where the regulation helped drive business, helped create trust and safety.
The present narrative is this: regulation is bad, and if we only had less of it we would all be richer.
Grasping around for something, anything, to boost growth, Chancellor Rachel Reeves let rip in her Mansion House speech with the predictable rhetoric. City regulation is a “boot on the neck of business” that is “choking off” enterprise, she said.
To his credit, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey distanced himself from Reeves.
“I don’t use those terms”, he says, which is Bailey speak for: The Chancellor doesn’t know what she’s talking about. “We can’t compromise on basic financial stability,” he said.
In other words, if you think safe banks are a hindrance to growth, see what happens to growth when they go bust.
The drive to deregulate is global.
There is talk of “animal spirits” and other clichés that get invoked just before things go terribly wrong.
Someone needs to say that regulation isn’t only, or even mostly, a hindrance to business.
Done well, it gives confidence to entrepreneurs that they won’t get legged over.
Business folk might want to make £1 million tomorrow. Proper regulation can lead them to £100 million, but it takes longer.
In the FT just weeks ago there was a brilliant Big Read about the UK’s internet infrastructure.
It showed how the share of British homes with full-fibre broadband has gone from 12% to 78% since 2020, thanks to regulation that was better than in other industries.
“While prices in sectors like energy and water have climbed and quality has fallen, telecoms operators have delivered faster, more reliable networks at lower prices than a decade ago,” the paper reported.
Regulators don’t speak up for themselves very well.
They seem to accept the narrative that they are just in the way, and their task is to do themselves out of a job.
They should get better PR.
Please send candidates for press release of the day to:
Press release of the day
Retail theft is spiralling out of control says the BRC, after ONS stats show shoplifting offences rose by 20% in the year to March.
Tom Ironside, Director of Business & Regulation at the BRC, said:
“Retail theft costs retailers, and their customers, over £2.2bn a year and are a major trigger for violence and abuse against staff. While the causes are manifold, the rise in organised crime is a significant concern, with gangs hitting store after store, even within a single day…
These incidents are not restricted to those working in stores: delivery drivers are often subjected to abuse, physical violence, and threats with weapons.”
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