Background to the report

In March 2025 HM Treasury (HMT), published its ‘New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth’ (the ‘Action Plan’). The Action Plan outlines a strategy to encourage regulators and regulation to support innovation and economic growth, and a commitment to cut the administrative burden on business by 25% by the end of the Parliament.

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The Action Plan makes clear that when regulation is designed and implemented well, it can be a tool to promote growth and investment. Conversely, if poorly designed or implemented, regulation can stifle productivity, investment and growth.

Regulation is often designed by individual departments and implemented by regulators. The Department for Business & Trade (DBT) leads on regulatory reform across government. HMT leads on growth and productivity policy. Sponsor departments can set expectations for regulators operating in their policy areas through their strategic steers. Regulators take account of their policy steer, while delivering their statutory duties.

The Action Plan builds on past initiatives such as the 2017 Growth Duty, which was introduced by DBT’s predecessor. It is a statutory requirement for specified regulators to ‘have regard’ to promoting economic growth. Since 2005, there have been at least 10 cross-government initiatives designed to reduce the cost of regulation to support economic growth.

Scope of the report

The purpose of this report is to support DBT, HMT, regulators and sponsor departments in their pursuit of growth, as they embark on a new programme of work to deliver the Action Plan. It examines whether government and regulators are aligned in their understanding of how regulation can contribute to growth, and whether DBT and HMT are taking forward the learning from the Growth Duty and previous initiatives. At the time of publication, DBT and HMT are 10 months into the four-year programme. The report covers:

  • DBT’s and HMT’s response to the Action Plan, progress to date, and the challenges to delivering the vision laid out in the Action Plan
  • lessons from related regulatory initiatives and the implementation of the Growth Duty, and how regulators are held to account
  • how regulators can support long-term growth, and examples of actions regulators are undertaking in the pursuit of growth.

Conclusions

The Action Plan makes clear that regulation has a vital role in protecting individuals and the environment. It also sets a clear expectation that policy makers and regulators must support growth and innovation and become less risk-averse.

In order to achieve the government’s vision, DBT and HMT must articulate how regulation can support growth and manage risk simultaneously, and acknowledge the trade-offs regulators face. At present DBT and HMT are not helping departments articulate their risk appetite, which can make it challenging for regulators to operate in line with their sponsor department’s expectations.

We found evidence that regulators are implementing changes in response to the Growth Duty, and the new Action Plan is stimulating further action. However, we cannot conclude whether this has had a material impact on growth, because DBT and HMT do not have the data.

There are lessons that can be learned from how the Growth Duty and other historic initiatives were implemented. These include prioritising actions that have the greatest impact and implementing structured monitoring of both impact and outcomes. DBT and HMT must formalise an implementation plan around which departments and regulators can coalesce with effective governance arrangements to monitor outcomes for growth and hold departments and regulators to account.

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Publication details

Press release

View press release (21 Jan 2026)

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