Red tape costs businesses £80bn

Government regulations impose a collective cost of £80bn on British businesses, well above ministers' £13bn estimate, the Institute of Directors (IoD) has claimed.

The employers' organisation said because of the burden - which equates to 5.7% of UK GDP - business owners are spending more than a month every year filling in forms, reading advice and complying with legislation.

It called for a new approach to measuring the cost of regulation based on the experiences of real people running real companies.