The Chancellor will kick off the government’s first ever Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham with a new crackdown on business bureaucracy, announcing measures the department says will save UK firms nearly £6 billion a year by the end of the Parliament.

Addressing more than 350 business leaders, local mayors and investors, the Chancellor will set out plans to cut red tape and speed up planning in a bid to deliver the Prime Minister’s 25% admin reduction target, a central commitment of the Modern Industrial Strategy.

The package includes simpler corporate reporting rules that will apply to more than 100,000 firms, removing requirements such as lengthy director reports to Companies House and easing accounting burdens on small businesses including micro-breweries and family-run cafes.

The government said the crackdown on paperwork will be accompanied by procedural and digital changes to the planning system. Developers could, ministers say, provide photo evidence to authorities online for approval using trained AI models, and a new online map of underground cables and pipes is intended to help planners and builders avoid delays caused by accidental damage without having to contact multiple utilities companies.

The Chancellor’s office said these changes build on a Regulation Action Plan announced in March, and that six months after that plan was published it had already identified £1.5 billion in savings that will contribute to the 25% target.

Delivering the full reduction, the government claimed, will allow it to “put nearly £6 billion per year back into the pockets of businesses by the end of the Parliament,” and to boost productivity by saving companies with employees around an average 200 hours a year on administrative activities.

At the summit the Chancellor will also unveil a series of private and public investment commitments intended to drive regional growth.

The government said private firms have pledged more than £10 billion of investment across the UK, including £6.5 billion from Welltower to create thousands of new beds in elderly care facilities.

The Treasury’s programme of regional investment is to be backed by further public funding: the Crown Estate has reportedly purchased land at Harwell East with “the potential to build new advanced manufacturing spaces and laboratories — creating 400 new homes and 30,000 jobs nationwide, including 10,000 for working people in Harwell,” while the National Wealth Fund will provide £104 million to finance onshore and offshore wind projects in Norfolk and Orkney and to support a heat network in Hull.

A team of specialists will be dispatched to help mayoral combined authorities in Glasgow City Region Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and the West Midlands to speed up key infrastructure projects and make them more attractive to investors, ministers said.

“Our mission is clear: to create the right environment for investment through our regulatory reforms, to crowd in capital through our public financial institutions, to break down silos to collaboration on local projects, and to support innovation and growth throughout the UK.”

The Chancellor will frame the summit as part of a wider effort to reverse long-standing regional underinvestment, saying the event will build on previous investment commitments and, ministers suggested, help ensure the benefits of growth are felt in towns, high streets and communities across the country.

The announcement comes ahead of the Budget on 26 November, which the Chancellor has said will prioritise growing the economy.

The government also pointed to recent permitting reforms that it says have already cleared the way for a major offshore wind farm in Teesside, which ministers said will power over a million homes and support 2,000 jobs.

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In the north-east, the text credited a new AI Growth Zone in Blyth — part of the UK–US Tech Prosperity Partnership — with attracting billions in private investment and the prospect of thousands of skilled jobs in data and energy.

Commenting on the regulatory cuts, Business and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle said: “A central part of our Industrial Strategy is slashing needless red tape that blocks business growth, and today is precisely about that. We are backing Britain, backing British businesses to thrive and grow and as part of our Plan for Change, these changes will boost jobs and grow the economy right across the country.”

The summit is being billed by ministers as a single moment to showcase regulatory reform and fresh capital flows to the regions; ministers said the combined effect of simplified reporting, digital planning measures and targeted investment will open new opportunities for jobs and investment outside London.