A council of business elders set up by Gordon Brown to bring business concerns to government's attention will not consider the furore over capital gains tax, it has emerged.

An aide to Mervyn Davies, the Standard Chartered Bank chairman who chairs the new council, told the Financial Times that the first meeting would 'agree on a number of priority areas for the UK - that's unlikely to [include] capital gains tax.

'Reacting to something the chancellor does is not what [the council] would be expected to do – it's got a broader remit than that.'

The revelation has caused concern with business groups lobbying against the changes. David Frost, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: 'to me, they have no option but to discuss [CGT]'

The IoD said the CGT changes were 'the sort of thing that the council should be looking at.'

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