KENT MP Michael Howard has called for ministers who tied up double glazing firms in red tape to be thrown out of their own windows.

Mr Howard, shadow chancellor of the exchequer and MP for Folkestone and Hythe, launched a fierce attack on excessive regulation, claiming the Government had issued more than 4,500 regulations in the past year alone, "one for every 26 minutes of each working day."

"Business is groaning under the burden of an extra £15 billion a year in extra taxes and red tape," he told the CBI business conference in Manchester.

He singled out the Fenestration Self Assessment Scheme for particular scorn during a question and answer session chaired by television presenter Alastair Stewart.

Double glazing firms in Medway and elsewhere apparently need permission whenever they install a window. But the Government thought it would be easier to allow firms to "self certificate" rather than go through the usual process of obtaining official planning permission from the council.

Mr Howard claimed it involved three copies of each form, one for the homeowner, one for the builder and one for the local authority.

But the scheme had made the system more bureaucratic than ever, Mr Howard said, yet Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt claimed it was a good example of less regulation.

"It's not the civil servants who should be defenestrated but the ministers who are responsible for all these things," he said.

Ms Hewitt retorted that the scheme was designed to protect people from cowboy builders.