BRITAIN has become a country governed by regulation, one follows another as we advance towards the Orwellian Society of Animal Farm, according to Andrew Grant, West Midlands regional chairman of the Country Landowners' Association.

He said while the UK was being penalised in all directions, it was also apparent that the former Eastern Bloc countries and the new EU accession countries were doing their utmost to shed their bureaucracy to help provide a flourishing economic climate.

"The consequences of over regulation in the UK are difficult to measure in cold economic terms, but the negative effects on businesses and on the people running those businesses are increasingly being voiced," Mr Grant said.

Business people, from small plumbers and electricians to listed company directors, he said, had expressed to him very strong feelings about over regulation and their present style of life.

"They work hard to make their businesses successful but are stifled by so many of the new demands creating a huge amount of paperwork and the employment of extra staff," he said. "Far worse is the lack of enjoyment from what they had previously enjoyed doing. They have now become angry people."

Mr Grant said he understood two business people a week were thinking of moving to another country where there was less regulation and a lower cost of living. Business people were now voting with their feet and the country was losing many of the entrepreneurial people with all their skills and energy that had helped to build the country's economy.