WIREDGOV

The Government has issued a call to arms against pointless regulation and unnecessary bureaucracy, launching a new Your Freedom website at http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/ (external link). The site asks the public how they want the Government to redress the balance between the citizen and the state.

The Your Freedom website is an opportunity for anyone to suggest ideas on restoring liberties that have been lost, repealing unnecessary laws and stripping away excessive regulation on businesses.

Your Freedom asks three questions:

• Restoring civil liberties: which current laws would you like to remove or change because they restrict your civil liberties?
• Cutting business and charity regulations: which regulations do you think should be removed or changed to make running your business or organisation as simple as possible?
• Repealing unnecessary laws: which offences do you think we should remove or change and why?

More sense and less red tape

The public say they only need laws and regulation that makes sense. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will shortly be asking Councillors and Council staff to suggest how the thick forest of outmoded, outdated and obsolete secondary legislation can be cut down to size. Government wants them to be local leaders not passé pen pushers.

Launching Your Freedom today, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said:

"For too long new laws and regulations have taken away people's freedoms, interfered in everyday life… the state has crept further and further into people's homes, the places they work, their private lives. That intrusion is wrong.

"This government is putting freedom under the spotlight. We want the British people have their say on where the state should step in, and where it should butt out. We are asking people for ideas on restoring hard won liberties that have been lost, on repealing unnecessary laws that have no place on the statute book, and on stripping away the excessive regulation that stops businesses from innovating.

"We don't think every problem can be fixed by passing a new law. We understand that Whitehall doesn't have all of the answers, and doesn't have a monopoly on the best ideas."

Users can post their ideas and comment on their favourites. Relevant departments will respond to the most popular workable ideas, and the Deputy Prime Minister will give regular updates.

Action already underway

The Coalition is already taking action. Within weeks of coming into office, the Coalition scrapped Home Information Packs - pointless red tape that was hampering the housing market, scrapped the top down housing targets and meaningless regional spatial strategies and put an end to unwanted 'garden grabbing' putting the decision back in the hands of local people.