A Bradford business leader has urged the Government to get a grip on red tape which is hindering business and redouble its efforts to reduce the burden of regulation on manufacturing companies.

Stephen Wright, managing director of pneumatics firm Thorite and president of Bradford Chamber of Commerce, described dealing with current levels of commercial regulation as “pushing custard uphill”.

Mr Wright, who also heads the Bradford and Airedale Manufacturing Alliance and sits on the regional council of the EEF, the manufacturers body, welcomed the latest update on the Government’s ‘One in One Out’ policy which seeks to axe one piece of regulation for every new one brought in.

But he said ministers must act boldly to reduce red tape.

He said: “This is an issue which Government rally must tackle with urgency. So far, we’ve had lots of fine words and promises both from this Government and its predecessor but the burden of red tape on business remains too high.

“Interpreting and dealing with regulations is both time consuming and expensive for companies such as ours and hinders business. Hopefully the latest approach will produce a real impact on reducing the scope and level of regulation, which has often been made worse in the UK through gold plating of EU measures.”

The EEF in its own analysis of progress on regulation reform said the Government has shown positive ambitions, including the One-In One-Out Approach, greater scrutiny of new regulation by the Regulatory Policy Committee and attempts to look at key areas such as employment and health and safety rather than picking at individual regulations.

But, with business under growing pressure, it says Whitehall needs to come up with some real reductions in regulation and greater effort to stem the flow of bad regulation from Europe.