Working to make government more effective

Working to make government more effective

Insight paper

Regulation and growth: Will the government’s strategy deliver?

What is in the government's new action plan?

Matthew Gill
Read the report (PDF)
DBT sign, London
Regulatory policy is led by the Department for Business and Trade.

The government’s recent publication, Regulatory Action Plan – Progress Update and Next Steps, brings together a broad suite of work that is in train across Whitehall. It creates an opportunity to evaluate the government’s emerging strategy for regulation and, in particular, its attempt to make regulation more enabling of economic growth.

The government is rightly focusing on what it can deliver quickly. Following on from the original regulatory action plan, published in March 2025, this update is a pragmatic document that showcases what is already being done to reduce the administrative burden of regulation on business and announces plans that could enable further rapid progress. 

There is much to welcome and the government is right to crowd-source more ideas, but there remain some areas where it should build on the political energy behind this work by taking a strategic lead itself. This short Insight paper looks at the government's latest plans.

Topic
Regulation
Keywords
Business Industrial strategy Energy Regional economic growth Economy
Political party
Labour
Administration
Starmer government
Publisher
Institute for Government

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