Chancellor Gordon Brown said in his Budget speech on Wednesday that “the barriers to enterprise” must be removed, and that the government would cut the amount of red tape affecting business. Britain must become a world leader “in skills, in science and in the knowledge-based economy” if it is to meet the challenge of competition from developing countries such as China and India, he added.

The Chancellor said the government had accepted recommendations from the Better Regulation Task Force, headed by David Arculus, on ways to cut the flow of regulation. Government departments would be required to cut the burden on business every year, he said.