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Businesses concern about plans to scrap EU laws.

 

High street
About two-thirds of busi­nesses believe that gov­ern­ment plans to dis­en­tangle Brit­ish and EU law will cause more uncer­tainty without any pos­it­ive effect on eco­nomic growth.

The find­ing in a poll con­duc­ted for an alli­ance of envir­on­mental and pub­lic safety organ­isa­tions comes as the Retained EU Law bill is set to be debated in the House of Lords today. Under the terms of the bill, any EU-derived reg­u­la­tion that is not con­ver­ted into UK law or revoked by the end of 2023 will auto­mat­ic­ally drop off the stat­ute book.

«We con­tinue,» the prime min­is­ter’s office said yes­ter­day, although min­is­ters con­cede they will have to adopt a tar­geted approach to dereg­u­la­tion, given the tight dead­lines.

The coali­tion oppos­ing the bill is broad. The polling was com­mis­sioned by Unchecked UK, a char­ity focused on safety and pro­tec­tion. It was sup­por­ted by the Women’s Insti­tute, the Wild­life Trusts, the Royal Soci­ety for the Pro­tec­tion of Birds and the Royal Soci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Acci­dents.

Some 63 per cent of respond­ents thought the plans would restrict busi­ness access to mar­kets.

The four top­ics named by busi­nesses as their key con­cerns were Brexit, infla­tion, energy costs and labour short­ages. Only 18 per cent of busi­nesses selec­ted excess­ive reg­u­la­tion.

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