They say the remark by business minister Shriti Vadera at a national conference merely underlines the Government's refusal to take the issue seriously.

Business leaders claim that European inspired legislation is enforced more severely – dubbed gold-plating – in the UK than in other countries, unfairly adding more cost to the running of UK firms.

According to Chambers of Commerce figures, the growth of legislation and regulations is costing businesses in the east of England £6.9 billion a year. Nationwide that figure is about £66 billion.

Baroness Vadera, who was appointed business minister at the start of the year, told delegates at a conference at the London Stock Exchange that despite the perception of business people, officials were not over-zealous in implementing legislation from Brussels.

She said: "We have a mythology that the UK gold-plates European legislation. We've had a study, and lo and behold, the UK does not gold-plate."

But the Federation of Small Businesses' east of England regional organiser Michael Self said: "Comments such as this simply show how out of touch the Government is on the reality of this issue.

"In fact this is a major problem for business.

"We find that civil servants here are a lot more severe in the way they implement legislation than their counterparts in other European states. Our people seem to want to make life more difficult for businesses here."

Chief executive of Peterborough Chamber of Commerce John Bridge said: "Regrettably, gold-plating is a very significant issue for businesses.

"Obviously business people have a lot of contacts with companies overseas, and we know from our own experience that the rules created by Brussels are imposed differently in some European states."

One example is the Working Time Directive which limits the number of hours people can work over a fortnight.

Mr Bridge said: "In the UK this directive has been thoroughly discussed and legislation has been enforced. Other countries have not even started to implement it yet.

"Maternity leave in the UK has just been increased from six months to a year. In Spain it is still set at 16 weeks."