Making Britain the best place in the world to do business

No government can run business and create wealth. What governments can do is create the best possible conditions for wealth creation. So I believe the next Conservative government should set itself a simple economic objective: to make Britain the best place in the world to do business

Rt Hon David Cameron MP

Conservative Business Relations is a forum for allowing leaders of the business community to engage with the Conservative Party and discuss policy issues. Through a regular programme of sectoral and regional events, business leaders can discuss their concerns and ideas with key members of the Parliamentary Conservative Party. Recent events have included policy seminars for the industrial and manufacturing sector and a networking reception for the public affairs industry.

The Government tabled at Parliament, on 20 January 2010, its proposed regulations to implement the Agency Workers Directive into English law.

The Conservative Party, and indeed business itself, has repeatedly called for more time to consider how best to put the Directive into practice, and for further consultation with business rather than the inadequate eight week period that has been given to date.

Yet, when we have a Labour Party so vulnerable and reliant on Union funding, it is no wonder that the Government has ignored pleas to the contrary and announced its intention to rush the legislation through prior to the General Election.

Simply put: more time is needed to ensure that UK business does not bear the brunt of these regulations. As it stands, the cost to the British economy stemming from the implementation of the Directive is going to be, according to the Government’s own figures, up to £20 billion over ten years.

In these times of economic instability the flexibility of the UK labour market will be a crucial factor in driving recovery. The Government’s proposals will result in completely the reverse effect. Businesses will be reluctant to employ agency workers for fear of the potential for huge administrative burdens.

Quite the opposite from protecting agency workers, the regulations proposed by the Government could significantly damage the agency worker market. One suspects that this is what the Unions had in mind all along.

We need to get people back into work and that means encouraging a flexible workplace. What is more, agency work is an attractive avenue for workers themselves: flexible hours, without the pressure of long term commitment, offer a method of re-entry into the workforce for many who do not have the time to work a full time job.

Accordingly, we shall not only be opposing the early adoption of these regulations but also making it clear that we reserve the right to reassess them in the event of a Conservative victory at the forthcoming Election.

Tuesday, February 2nd 2010 - George Osborne has set out a new model of economic growth, which plans for a private sector recovery driven by business investment and exports, instead of consumer borrowing and government debt.

The eight clear and transparent benchmarks published today are something against which a future Conservative Government can be judged. Speaking at the launch of the document, the Shadow Chancellor contrasted our detailed approach with that of Gordon Brown who "will say anything and spend anything to cling on to power."

And he added, "The man who failed to fix the roof while the sun was shining, and took Britain into the deepest and longest recession for generations, cannot be trusted to take us out of it."

Our Benchmarks for Economic Growth are:

Read George Osborne's speech in full.

View the New Economic Model document.

Ken Clarke - Labour's recession hits manufacturing - Thursday, January 7th 2010

Ken Clarke, the Shadow Business Secretary, has revealed that manufacturing output has declined by almost 13% during Labour's recession.

It has sunk to its lowest level since 1992, reversing the gains made under the Major Government.

Ken said that 'manufacturing output was steadily rising during the last five years of the previous Conservative government and now it has gone back to its lowest level since 1992.'

Output has also fallen by 10% since Labour came into office in 1997. This comes after a recent report which showed that manufacturing declines three times as fast under Labour as it did under the Conservative governments of the 1980s, despite Lord Mandelson's claim that the industry lies at the heart of Britain's future growth prospects.

'It is a bit rich for Labour to talk now about a 'growth strategy' reviving manufacturing when output has fallen during their period of office to its lowest level in almost 20 years,' Clarke added.