CMA chair pledges to speed up decision-making after government backlash
The new chair of the competition watchdog has pledged to speed up its decision making and bring in outside expertise as part of plans to reshape the agency following months of criticism.
Doug Gurr, a former Amazon executive who was parachuted in to lead the body after ministers ousted his predecessor last week, said “lengthy and uncertain investigations” were hamstringing businesses and leading to unnecessary costs.
“Good decisions, clear decisions, rapid decisions — that’s what you tell us you need and that’s on us to deliver,” he wrote in the Financial Times.
The comments mark the most explicit acknowledgement yet that the regulator will chart a corrective course amid anger in Westminster and the City over its approach to growth.
In a major intervention last week, Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer forced the former chair, Marcus Bokkerink, out of his role due to his “different approach” on delivering growth.
Critics have accused the CMA of unnecessarily meddling in investigations and dampening the appeal of the UK as a place to invest. It triggered fury from the boss of Microsoft in 2023 after initially blocking the company’s tie up with Activision Blizzard.
Starmer launched a public rebuke of its strategy in front of international investors at his government’s inaugural investment summit last year, saying the body needed to “take[..] growth as seriously as this room does.”
Both the Chancellor and Prime Minister have since piled pressure on regulators to row in behind their growth “mission” and sent letters to 17 regulators on Christmas eve demanding ideas.
However, Reeves is said to have been unimpressed by the CMA’s proposals.
“We’ve listened”
As part of Gurr’s plans to reshape the CMA’s approach, he wrote today that it will also bring in outside expertise so firms do not need to spend time educating regulators over the nature of their business.
“The CMA has a wealth of talent and a committed workforce. But we also know businesses can find it frustrating when they feel they have to spend their time educating us about their sector dynamics and issues,” he wrote. “And, of course, the deeper our understanding, the better the decisions we make will be. So, once again, we’ve listened.”
The comments come ahead of Gurr’s first public outing today when the watchdog will be grilled by some of the UK’s biggest business bodies at a ‘growth and investment council’.
An agenda for the summit, seen by CityAM, includes a “brainstorm” with attendees and a presentation of the regulator’s plans for the year. Gurr will also offer introductory remarks and a closing summary, in his first public outing in the role.
Gurr is currently operating on an interim basis and it is unclear whether he will look to take on the job on a permanent basis.
Under cabinet office rules, the business and trade select committee (BTC) will hold a pre-appointment hearing ahead of a permanent hire being made. While MPs will be given a chance to grill the nominee, they do not have power to veto an appointment.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) did not confirm whether Gurr would be put forward for this role, and pointed CityAM to their previous statement: “In the coming weeks, the DBT will set out the process for recruiting a new permanent chairman of the CMA.”