Bernard Ginns: This mountain of bureaucracy is choking our businesses

Our conversation began in December, following the Variety Club's Yorkshire Business Awards, at which Mr Abrahams was named Business Leader of the Year.

Clutching his award, he told me of his growing exasperation at the pointless bureaucracy that his company is having to contend with. We caught up again last week and continued the theme.

As an international player with significant operations in America, China and Europe, he is well placed to compare and contrast the different regulatory environments.

His verdict on the UK is not a flattering one. Aside from the highly-skilled workforce, almost everything else seems to be stacked up against big manufacturers continuing to invest in Britain. That's not an opinion many of you will rejoice in hearing.

Much of the legislation emanating from central government is over and above what is reasonable, said Mr Abrahams.

For instance, Fenner prides itself on its health and safety performance and works to maintain its high standards, knowing that its reputation in this area is everything.

Why then should it be forced by law to waste time and money on complying with silly little forms to satisfy the pen-pushers?

Mr Abrahams also warned about the ebbing away of the infrastructure that supports manufacturing in the UK. This is more serious.

If the nation cannot sustain its real industries, as opposed to its publicly-subsidised ones, who then could blame ambitious companies for wanting to relocate to more favourable climes?

Last month, research by accountancy firm BDO suggested that more and more companies are bringing home manufacturing operations that had previously been outsourced overseas, citing improved competitiveness and efficiencies in the UK.

This is inevitable as wages rise in places like China and is most welcome, as they can help sustain that all-important critical mass of manufacturing on which the national economy is dependent.

I wonder though how these companies are finding the increased bureaucracy that comes with the restored operations.

I asked Lord Mandelson's department what it was doing to meet the concerns of business, as expressed by Mark Abrahams.

A spokesman said: "We take costs to business seriously and have sought to timetable the introduction of any new measures to avoid extra costs during the recession.

"We are on target and working hard to deliver the net 25 per cent reduction in administrative burdens we promised to deliver by 2010, saving business and the third sector organisations 3.4bn in administrative costs with almost 1.9bn delivered to date.

"We will continue to look for measures to cut red tape and reduce burdens."

The bitter irony is that many of these administrative burdens were introduced by the self-same government, only to be targeted for reductions later on.

Still, it keeps people in jobs, doesn't it?

LAST week, the Association of British Furniture Manufacturers called for the introduction of a sofa scrappage scheme, which it claims would reduce the number of people dying in house fires and help create jobs in manufacturing.

Leaders of the trade group met with special advisers to Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson in a bid to win Government backing for the project.

Under the scheme, the householders receive a discount of 20 per cent – 10 per cent from the Government and 10 per cent from the retailer – on a new sofa or chair in exchange for a pre-1988 sofa, which would be collected by the retailer.

The retailer would provide the Government with evidence that the sofa had been scrapped and receive half the discount back.

In terms of scale, the UK furniture manufacturing contributes 10bn to Britain's economy at factory gate prices and employs around 125,000 people in 7,000 businesses.

The BFM scheme has merits and has attracted some interest in the corridors of power, but I wonder whether any progress will be made under the current government.

Perhaps the backers, including chairman Stuart Chadwick, who is based in Hebden Bridge, might like to appraise the Tories of the benefits of the scheme in case they win power...