Brown's business council 'won't discuss CGT'
Gordon Brown's council of business elders will not discuss issue of most concern to business from the pre-Budget report
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.’
Further reading:
Business
bosses to advise Brown