Tories criticise lack of consultation with business

The government is making Britain a "difficult place" to do business, a shadow Treasury minister has said.

Mark Hoban said that businesses are "angry and frustrated" they were not consulted over revisions to the law on senior accounting officers.

Firms want more consultation before legislation is introduced, he told the Commons as it sat in committee to consider the Finance Bill, which implements the Budget.

The Conservative frontbencher also suggested the City wants a "predictable, certain tax system".

Hoban said: "Businesses are quite angry and frustrated at the lack of consultation before measures are announced and it is one of the factors that makes Britain a difficult place for businesses to do business.

"They want to see a predictable, certain tax system. And I think businesses want to see more consultation - and that's consultation before legislation is introduced."

And he told MPs: "The government hasn't gone out there in advance to make the case for requiring this. The government need to understand what the true effect will be on business.

"It is in the interest of maintaining the confidence of industry in HMRC and of making sure HMRC know what they are doing, why they are doing it, what the costs are, what the benefits are, that we delay implementing this measure until the first anniversary of the passage of the 2009 Finance Act."

And Geoffrey Robinson (Lab, Coventry North West) supported calls for more consultation on Budget implementation.

"Clearly there has to be a lot of consultation on this and clearly it should not be introduced until that consultation has ironed out the bulk of the problems that are bound to be associated with it," he said.

"I will of course support the government whatever on this particular point, but if it were to involve a year's delay or something of that kind, I think it would be very sensible."

Treasury financial secretary Stephen Timms agreed that a balance needed to be struck between safeguarding revenues from larger companies and the compliance costs for businesses.

"I am now satisfied that the base of companies within the scope of this measure can be narrowed to strike a better balance," he said.

"Current thinking is to limit the measure to those companies with a large business relationship with HMRC and a customer relationship manager reflecting that."