David Cameron pledges to tackle 'health and safety monster' David Cameron has pledged to tackle the 'health and safety monster'. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA Lawyers will face a cap on the fees they can earn from health and safety cases, David Cameron announced as he pledged to tackle the "health and safety monster" he said was hampering business growth. In his first public appearance of the new year, intended to show that boosting economic growth is the government's main priority, the prime minister also said local authorities needed a "slap" to encourage them to work more effectively with businesses. But Cameron - making the economy the main theme of his appearances in the home counties before focusing on the NHS on Friday - admitted the government had made a mistake in one of its first initiatives to boost economic growth. A national insurance holiday, introduced for new businesses outside London and the south-east in September 2010, had helped create fewer jobs than expected, he said. "It wasn't as successful as we hoped," he added. It was perhaps too complicated, it was too targeted at specific businesses in specific areas of the country and so it didn't work as well as we hoped. The prime minister used his appearance at the headquarters of Intuit, in Maidenhead, to announce new relief for businesses complaining of excessive health and safety regulations. Lawyers are to face a cap on their earnings in cases for claims of up to £25,000. Businesses have complained that they settle cases in which an aggrieved employee has a weak complaint to avoid paying legal fees. "What we are going to be doing is saying that, for claims up to £25,000, we are going to cap the fees that lawyers can earn from those claims," Cameron said. I think that will take a lot of fear out of the health and safety monster and make sure that businesses feel they can get on, they can plan, they can invest, they can grow without feeling they are going to be strangled by red tape and health and safety regulation. He said the government, which has already announced that self-employed people will be exempt from many regulations, would continue to introduce liberalising measures. "I don't think there is any one single way you can cut back the health and safety monster," Cameron added. You have got to look at the quantity of rules, and we are cutting them back. You have got to look at the way they are enforced, and we are making sure that is more reasonable. The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, which represents professionals working in health and safety, condemned the prime minister's remarks. Richard Jones, its head of policy and public affairs, said: "Labelling workplace health and safety as a monster is appalling and unhelpful as the reason our legislative system exists is to prevent death, injury or illness at work, protecting livelihoods in the process. The problem identified by the government's own reviews is not the law, but a rather exaggerated fear of being sued, fed by aggressive marketing. Cameron said he wanted to focus on business because the British economy faced a tough year. Ministers have been managing expectations for the economy downwards amid fears the eurozone crisis could spark a double-dip recession. "This is going to be an absolutely vital year for the British economy and also a difficult year for the British economy," he said. We have seen a squeeze on household budgets as food and fuel prices have risen. We have got the difficulties in the eurozone that have cast a bit of a freeze across Europe's economy. So it is going to be a tough year. But it is not a year in which the government is going to stand back ... it is a year in which the government is going to roll up its sleeves and ask what can we do to help business. He said he wanted local authorities and businesses to work more closely together, adding: "It sounds like they need a slap rather than a nudge. In a good local authority, there should be a small business adviser who is there to try and help make sure that local authority is business friendly. The government will offer incentives to local authorities by allowing them to keep more of the rates from new businesses in their area, he said, adding: "At the moment, there isn't really an incentive for local government to be friendly to local business." While Cameron was keen to show that the government would make economic growth its main priority, the poor performance of the national insurance holiday had shown Whitehall schemes can only have a limited success. He said the most important step to be taken by the government was to ensure low interest rates by reassuring the markets with the deficit reduction plan. "You can come up with all the schemes in the world," he said. But actually there is no scheme that is as good as controlling your spending, getting the debts under control and therefore keeping your taxes down - and particularly keeping the taxes down that cost businesses when they employ people.