Chancellor to meet business groups over tax

Alistair Darling, the UK's chancellor, is to meet a number of business groups today (October 22nd) to discuss recently announced measures on taxation, it has emerged.

According to reports, Mr Darling will today discuss a number of measures announced during this month's pre-Budget report, including the decision to implement a standard capital gains tax rate of 18 per cent.

This month's announcement took place on October 9th.

"It's early days. Our stance will be to open a dialogue - we're not expecting a quick turnaround," said Miles Templeman, director-general of the Institute of Directors, to the Financial Times.

"No one's going to expect realistically that [Mr Darling] is simply going to say 'right you are'," he added.

Among those opposed to the recently-announced changes include the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce.