Employment issues top regulatory burdens

87% of UK businesses believe that reducing regulation should be on the government agenda, according to the ICAEW Enterprise Survey Report 2007. Furthermore, over a third of businesses think this should be the top priority for government action to improve the business environment. But which regulations are most burdensome for medium business? Medium enterprises have no doubt that employment legislation is the biggest culprit.

Across all sizes of business, employment legislation and health and safety regulations are the most likely areas to be considered troublesome, with 15% of businesses singling each out as the biggest administrative burden they face. However, it appears that employment legislation may be getting less onerous: in the 2006 survey, 28% of businesses pointed to it as the biggest administrative burden.

Unfortunately, this change is not reflected in the response of medium-sized businesses, of which 26% still identify employment legislation as their single biggest administrative burden. The report suggests that this may be because they "are starting to build up a significant workforce but may not yet have the critical mass for an established HR function".

Health and safety regulations and VAT are the two next most burdensome requirements for medium business, identified by 19% and 13%, respectively, as the biggest administrative burden. At the other end of the scale, business taxation and planning regulations are two areas in which medium businesses are considerably less concerned.

Aside from the 34% of medium business that believes reducing regulation should be the government's top priority for improving the business environment, 19% thinks improving the skills and qualifications of the UK population is most important and 12% thinks lowering interest rates should take precedent.

 Find the ICAEW Enterprise Survey report here