Blog | by Andy Mildner | November 2026
Government Cuts Red Tape for Small Business: What's Actually Changing
Andy Mildner
On 23 October, ahead of his first Budget, Chancellor John Healey announced plans to cut what the Treasury calls “form-filling and pointless paperwork” for UK businesses, with an estimated saving of up to £800m. The same day, the government confirmed that a different, longer-running piece of red tape, the plan to make small companies publish full profit and loss information at Companies House, is being paused. Here is what each of these means in practice, and what has not changed.
What has the Chancellor actually announced?
The package targets savings of up to £800m in administrative and tariff costs for UK businesses. The Treasury has itemised about £666m of it so far: £290m from streamlined reporting requirements, £105m from easing duplicative reporting for asset managers, £116m from cutting red tape in buying and selling homes, and up to £155m from extending import tariff suspensions on more than 250 products for another year. The government has also set a goal of cutting the regulatory admin businesses have to deal with by 25% by the end of this Parliament.
The reaction has been political, in the way these announcements usually are. The Prime Minister said pointless bureaucracy gets in the way of people working hard, while the Shadow Chancellor, Andrew Griffith, said the announcement was an admission that red tape is hammering businesses. Worth reading as a direction of travel rather than a finished rulebook: the Autumn Budget on 28 October repeated the £800m figure, but at the time of writing no form-by-form list of what changes, and when, has been published.
Is Companies House really dropping the profit and loss filing change?
Separately, a plan that has worried a lot of small company directors is being paused. Under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023, small companies and micro-entities were due to be required to file profit and loss accounts, meaning turnover and profit figures would become visible to anyone on the public register. On 23 October 2026 the government said it will pause implementing that requirement, will continue to allow companies to file abridged accounts, and will let smaller companies keep the option to leave their profit and loss information out of accounts filed after 1 April 2028 (known as filleting). The pause follows concerns about the cost and extra admin for small businesses and the privacy implications of making full profit figures public.
One thing is not paused - from April 2028 all UK registered companies must file their accounts in iXBRL format using commercial software, and the Companies House web and paper filing systems will close for accounts filings from that date.
This sits alongside, rather than replaces, the separate identity verification requirements for directors and PSCs that Companies House has already brought in. If you have not yet seen our guide to Companies House identity verification deadlines for directors and PSCs, that one is worth reading alongside this update, since the two often get confused with each other.
What does this mean for your filing in practice right now?
Nothing changes this week for the vast majority of small companies. If you currently file an abridged or filleted account, you carry on exactly as before, and the current filing rules remain in place.
- Keep filing your accounts exactly as you do now; no new profit and loss disclosure requirement has started.
- Do not assume the pause is permanent; “paused” is not the same as “cancelled.”
- If paperwork from HMRC or your council has felt heavier than usual lately, the red tape package may ease some of that over time rather than overnight.
- Plan ahead for April 2028, when accounts have to be filed using iXBRL-compliant software.
Frequently Asked Questions.
No. You still file whatever your company's current size and filing option require, such as an abridged or filleted account if you qualify as small or micro. What is paused is the separate plan to require small companies to file profit and loss information from April 2028.
Need help?
We handle Companies House filings and compliance as part of our day-to-day work with clients, so you do not need to track every announcement like this yourself. If you would like us to flag anything that genuinely changes what you need to file, or just want a straight answer on where your company stands today, feel free to contact us via our website. This is general information rather than advice.
Book a free consultation: https://loveyouraccountants.com/contact.
Author
Andy Mildner
Andy is a seasoned accountant, FD and business coach passionate about helping business owners achieve clarity and confidence. As founder of LYA...
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