Prospect calls for good regulation to drive growth

Prospect, the union for regulators in the UK, is calling on the TUC to campaign for a new approach to regulation, abandoning deregulation, and regulators putting the public interest first.

In a motion to TUC Congress in Brighton Prospect says strategically and socially important industries risk being held back, while the needs of our wider economy and society are not being met. It points to the increasing reliance of regulators on those they regulate for income, and short-sighted cost cutting as problems with regulators ignoring social, economic and strategic factors. And sadly, this is the background to many of the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry and a direct contributory factor in those dreadful events.

In the energy sector, for example, Ofgem did not anticipate the collapse of low-cost energy providers. Prospect have previously highlighted the impact of cuts to inspector numbers at the Health and Safety Executive.

The motion, which was carried, calls on the TUC General Council to lobby for a new, more sophisticated approach that ensures commercial, and cost considerations are balanced by public priorities such as:

• social justice and fair access to essential basic services
• workforce resilience, workforce development and the need to maintain decent pay and working conditions. Emplacing the key role of specialists in regulatory functions across government
• increased long-term investment in R&D, innovation, and infrastructure needed to support the UK’s industrial strategy and sustainability goals.

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect, said:

“For too long regulation has been seen as a dirty word with notional costs to business carrying far more weight than the actual impact of regulation on the public more widely.

“Regulation is not an economic drag, if introduced properly and with properly funded regulators it can drive growth and benefit society.

“Deregulation by contrast, if done with the level of ideological zeal we have seen in recent years, can lead us to a position where profit is a higher concern than public safety.

“As we have recently seen in the Grenfell Inquiry report, at the most extreme this can lead to disastrous failures and serious loss of life.”