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The U.K. government has promised to “materially simplify” the country's narrative disclosure requirements in an effort to cut the cost of complying with its financial reporting rules. The narrative reporting rules will be made “clearer and more focused.”

U.K.-listed companies have been frequently criticized—including by corporate regulator the Financial Reporting Council (FRC)—for poor standards of narrative reporting.

The government promised to clear out the rulebook and require companies to produce a “simpler and more concise report” covering strategy, performance and risk. They will be allowed to put supporting information online, rather than in their annual accounts.

The government said it will issue a consultation paper by the end of July to get business views on other ways to reduce the compliance burden associated with financial reporting.

One issue on its agenda is a new a framework for company reporting “which makes it as easy as possible for businesses to adapt to national and international developments,” the government said.

The comments came in “The Plan for Growth,” a strategy document written by the Treasury and the department responsible for business.

Meanwhile, in the same strategy paper the government said it had told the Office of Fair Trading, the U.K.'s competition watchdog, to investigate claims that banks sometimes demand that a business has a “top tier” accounting firm as its auditor before they make a loan.

It wants the OFT to look at whether such clauses exist, if they are anti-competitive, and whether their removal would help mid-sized firms to compete for larger audits.