Red tape sticks around

The City received an overall satisfaction score of 62 per cent following a survey of 101 business people which looked at their view on Cockburn as a location to run a business.

That score put the City in top spot, outdoing the industry average by 14 per cent.

But there is room for improvement, with 17 per cent of those interviewed saying red tape was the biggest challenge facing local businesses, followed by the high cost of running a business (12 per cent) and traffic congestion (11 per cent).

Melville Cockburn Chamber of Commerce president Tony Romano said red tape was a topical issue among the many businesses he speaks to.

‘There is a perception by small business owners that governments, both at a state and federal level, are doing very little to instil confidence in the community and are not providing any incentives for small business owners and the general community to encourage and assist the small business sector,’ he said.

Senior Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA economist Joanne Penaranda said the CCI had set up a red-tap webpage (cciwa.com/redtape) for businesses to share their examples of when red tape holds them back.

That information is then collated and taken to government in a bid to remove the regulations having the biggest impact.

‘Excessive or duplicative regulation adds to the cost of doing business and takes owners or managers away from running and growing their operations,’ Ms Penaranda said.

Cockburn’s director of planning and development, Daniel Arndt, said the City was pleased to have achieved the industry high for overall satisfaction.

‘The City will continue to refine online applications process and its management of applications in order to assist and streamline the business approval process in Cockburn,’ he said.