Excessive rules on corporate governance are in danger of stifling wealth creation and entrepreneurship in the UK, former Dixons Group chairman Lord Kalms said last week.

In a debate hosted by City law firm Dechert - at which Sir Derek Higgs, author of the Higgs report on corporate governance, was also speaking - Lord Kalms said Dixons' successful Internet venture Freeserve would never have got off the ground if it had needed the agreement of non-executive directors.


He said: 'Freeserve was speculative, in an entirely new field for Dixons. We had no comparative experience, and it was scheduled to lose loads of money for several years before scale kicked in.'


Sir Derek countered: 'I was on the board of Prudential when the Egg Internet bank was hatched and I simply do not recognise that non-executive directors are preventing wealth creation.'