Partner Article

Red tape Room 101 highlights regulation headaches

The Tees Valley Committee of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and Waltons Clark Whitehill helped businesses voice their red tape troubles to the town’s MP and Shadow Minister for Competitiveness and Enterprise Iain Wright.

In front of an audience of more than 40 members of the Tees Valley business community at the new offices of the Hartlepool-based chartered accountants and business advisers, the MP was part of a panel to which three pieces of legislation were pitched, with the aim of consigning them to the mythical Room 101.

The event was a fun way to deliver a serious message, which it is hoped will help inform Mr Wright in his efforts to support business in Parliament and across Hartlepool.Joining Mr Wright on the panel were Waltons Clark Whitehill Partner Derek Boyd and Jamie Brown, a Partner at Stockton-based commercial law firm Endeavour Partnership.

After hearing the three pitches, the audience were asked to vote one piece of legislation into Room 101, and narrowly opted to consign thousands of pages of tax code legislation to history, following a pitch by John Megson, of Hartlepool Business Forum and the HMS Trincomalee Trust.Mr Megson had competed against Gavin Wise, of Wise Financial Consulting, who spoke out against the pension reforms, and against insolvency specialist John White, of Taylor Rowlands, who argued for the ancient law of landlords’ distraint to be shelved.

Ian Kinnery, chairman of the Tees Valley Committee of the IoD, said: “Red tape is a serious issue for businesses across the Tees Valley so this was a great opportunity to look at the problems and areas where they can be overcome. Everyone present recognised that there are areas where red tape can simply be eradicated and entered into the spirit of the occasion, including Mr Wright, who I hope will take what he heard and feed it into his work as Shadow Minister for Competitiveness and Enterprise.”

Heather O’Driscoll, Managing Partner at Waltons Clark Whitehill, said: “It was great to work with the IoD and the participants involved to host this event, and the day gave us an opportunity to showcase our new offices to friends of the firm old and new.“I hope that Mr Wright found the event enlightening and that he will take some of the comments he heard, not only from the people who made the pitches, but also the audience, back to Parliament for the good of businesses across the country.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by George Hardey .