Chancellor is 'out of his depth'

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As the Chancellor faced pressure to reverse the capital gains tax rise announced in his pre-Budget report, the survey of the capital's firms showed they were "not confident" in his understanding of business.

The ComRes poll found that bosses have more confidence in shadow chancellor George Osborne and Tory leader David Cameron than they do in Mr Darling and Gordon Brown. Business leaders hope the Chancellor will be forced into a U-turn over the surprise increase in capital gains tax (CGT) from 10 per cent to 18 per cent.

Business Secretary John Hutton is to pass on to Mr Darling the "anger" of companies hit by the change.

The CGT change was part of theabolition of the lower 10p taper rate aimed at combating claims that private equity bosses were paying insufficient tax. But the wholesale nature of the change has hit all businesses.

Mr Darling today tried to reassert his authority with a warning to "irresponsible" mortgage lenders that they were fuelling an "unsustainable" boom in house prices by offering loans of up to seven times an individual's salary.

Reacting to a report by the International Monetary Fund on the risk of a housing slowdown, he said home loan providers should ask "more searching questions" to prevent borrowers from over-reaching themselves.

The Chancellor sought to stand firm on capital gains tax, claiming that "it is not a tax on entrepreneurship".

The ComRes poll of London business leaders found that 76 per cent of them were "not particularly confident" or "not confident at all" in Mr Darling's abilities. Just 15 per cent had confidence in him.

By contrast, 49 per cent of the bosses were either "very confident or fairly confident" in the abilities of Mr Osborne. The figure was 55 per cent for Mr Cameron and 30 per cent for the Prime Minister.