By Stefan Boscia
Business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg wants to scrap all business regulations for SMEs with under 500 employees, according to a Treasury minister.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp told a fringe event at the Tory party conference today that Rees-Mogg would soon outline a package of measures to slash business regulation.
“One of which is making sure no business under 500 employees is subject to business regulation – another critically important move,” Philp said.
Rees-Mogg was contacted about what cutting all business regulations would entail.
The government is planning on slashing red tape for small businesses, including requirements around reporting of financial statements.
Businesses with 249 employees are currently considered to be an SME and are exempt from a series of regulations, however the government has announced it will extend this threshold to 500 employees.
The change could be made post-Brexit as the EU says only firms with less than 250 employees can be classed as a small and medium sized business.
Rees-Mogg told a fringe event at the Conservative party conference that high levels of regulation creates a “club for incumbents”.
“Regulation backs incumbents, it backs big business against challengers. New employment comes, generally, speaking from smaller businesses,” he said.
“You musn’t regulate them as if they’re big businesses, you stop the level of growth, you don’t get the growth you need.
“This isn’t a mad rush to remove all safety regulations. It’s making sure the regulations are ones you actually need and pertain to real issues businesses face.”
It comes after Rees-Mogg’s business partner Dominic Johnson was today announced as a new trade minister and will be given a peerage by Prime Minister Liz Truss.
Johnson, who co-founded City firm Somerset Capital with Rees-Mogg, will also sit as a minister in the Cabinet Office.
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