The latest Deloitte survey of finance directors' outlooks reveals the number of companies looking at moving their corporate base outside the UK to a cheaper tax regime more than doubled in the third quarter - up from 13% to 29%.

'Chief financial officers are preparing for a more prolonged period of distress in credit markets than they had earlier expected, with cost-cutting and cash-preservation coming to the fore. There is also a growing readiness to contemplate more radical options such as off-shoring and dividend cuts, a reflection of the growing intensity of the slowdown,' Margaret Ewing, Deloitte partner and vice chairman, told The Independent.

The survey also showed the financial outlook among FDs fell in the third quarter of this year at the fastest rate since the financial crisis began.

Most companies planned to cut employee numbers and slash investment in their businesses as credit dried up and a majority of respondents said they thought credit conditions were unlikely to improve before the second half of 2009 or later in contrast with an earlier outlook that conditions would ease by the middle of next year.

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