Wetherspoon boss hits at Labour "red tape"
05 June 2001
Increasing levels of red tape under Labour are making it harder for new enterprises to get off the ground, the founder of JD Wetherspoon has said. Tim Martin, founding chairman of the pubs group, said bureaucracy under Labour was so bad it would be much more difficult today to start up a business such as Wetherspoon's. The pubs group was set up in 1979 and floated on the stock market in 1992 at a value of £45m. It has this week been placed ninth in a European league table of fastest-growing businesses by pan-European research organisation GrowthPlus, having created 10,000 jobs in the past five years. It is now valued at £760m. Martin said: "There has been a fantastic increase in red tape directly from this Government and from Europe. In consequence, I have absolutely no doubt that it will make it more difficult for small businesses to start. "In the long term, the health of the economy is determined by the number of small businesses starting up." The Government "paid lipservice" to deregulation, he added, but in fact was "acting as if it is addicted to regulation". Environmental health regulations, building regulations, tougher planning laws, changes to licensing laws and generally more complex employment legislation had all added to the burden on businesses. While big businesses such as Wetherspoon's were well able to cope, he was worried about the effect such red tape had on entrepreneurs and smaller operators. "If it gets to the stage where it discourages new businesses from starting up, then it will be counter-productive," Martin said. But he insisted he was not trying to make a party political point just two days before voting starts in the General Election. "I have criticised the last Conservative Government and I am criticising this one," he said. by Nic Paton
