In 1977, a then 16-year old William Hague said that his generation wanted the national government to “…get out of the way, not intervene, not interfere in their lives” and hoped that future Prime Ministers would promote a truly free-market economy where those who took the greatest risk received the largest profit. Thirty-four years later, the Prime Minister David Cameron, in a reprise of his colleague’s previous call to arms in the war against perceived unnecessary control and regulation which he referred to as the “…ridiculous burdens on our businesses…” launched his ‘Red Tape Challenge’. As a result, in 2013, legislation which was introduced to help clients and contractors monitor, manage and reduce construction waste more effectively (the Site Waste Management Plans Regulations, 2008), was removed from the statute books.
Most economists would agree that the financial deregulation of the mid-1980s, instigated by the Conservative government and continued by subsequent administrations, was a major factor in the economic crises of the late 1980s, early 1990s and indeed, the crash of 2007-2008. Also and perhaps more significantly, the movement towards more de-regulated, de-nationalised, de-centralised models of government led to legal control being increasingly seen as an unnecessary and expensive irritant which did indeed ‘get in the way’ of individuals and organisations trying to do business. As a result, evidence of a laissez faire attitude to regulation and the decline in propriety and business ethics has been seen in so-called ‘casino’ banking and bonuses being awarded for encouraging high-risk loans, the manipulation of the LIBOR interbank interest rate in 2012, price-fixing by some supermarkets, product manufacturers and airlines, levels of pay of some Chief Executives, the scandal of MPs’ expenses…