Britain poised for a Brexit unless Cameron secures major reforms before the EU referendum
According to a 1,000 page study, entitled "Change, or Go," by a group of prominent British business leaders and economists including fund manager Helena Morrissey, Cameron has to secure some "major reforms" to "introduce mechanisms to reduce the burden of regulation on businesses."
It adds that households across the UK will vote for the country leaving the EU - dubbed a "Brexit" - unless greater "control over social and employment laws" are agreed upon.
"Far from offering every consumer and business the benefits of a wider domestic market, after 40 years of membership, less than 5 per cent of UK companies directly export to the EU yet all are forced to bear the burden of its regulations," says the study, according to the Telegraph newspaper, which published extracts from the report.
"The EU is not a free trade area but a customs union, and one which has spectacularly failed to deliver trade deals with rising economic giants like China. Far more effective tools are needed to ensure that the UK could block measures that it fundamentally disagrees with, and these tools must be secured in any renegotiation."
Britain's ruling Conservative Party will have to deliver a referendum by 2017 over whether Britain will stay part of the EU or not, since it was a linchpin pledge during the campaign.
Over the last month, Prime Minister David Cameron was reportedly already putting plans in motion to bring forward an in/out referendum by a year. However last week, Cameron's office performed a U-turn and ruled out holding a European Union membership referendum on May 5, 2016.
Cameron is set to meet with Brussels officials this week as he attends a European summit to set out his renegotiation strategy.
Pressure is mounting on Cameron as he was allegedly snubbed by Brussels leaders last month when he tried to start negotiating the terms of membership within the EU.