BRITAIN’s leading business organisations are putting aside their traditional rivalries to launch a campaign to get Alistair Darling to reverse the increase in capital-gains tax (CGT) for business announced in last week’s prebudget report.

The CBI, Institute of Directors, British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and Federation of Small Businesses agreed at the CBI’s Centre Point headquarters on Friday that the issue was so serious it merited rare collective action.

They seek an urgent meeting with the chancellor and call on him to suspend the tax hike – due to take effect in April – pending those discussions.

The four bodies, which represent the majority of British businesses, are expected to be joined by other organisations, such is the scale of the anger over the tax change, particularly among the owner-managers of small and medium-sized firms.

They face higher tax bills running into tens of thousands of pounds when they sell their businesses, usually when they are contemplating retirement.

Darling’s announcement in the prebudget report, his first big statement, scrapped the system of taper relief and the 10% CGT rate on business assets, replacing them with a flat 18% rate.

“We’re all equally concerned about what the government did on CGT,” said John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director-general. “Our message is that, given the strength of business views on this, we urge the chancellor to pause, to consult, and find an appropriate solution.”

David Frost, director-general of the BCC, said anger in the business community was palpable.

“People who buy and sell property will gain at the expense of genuine entrepreneurs,” he said.

“I have never known a reaction like this from the small and medium-sized business community.”

The Institute of Directors said the tax hike called into serious question the government’s commitment to an enterprise culture.

The business bodies fear that Darling’s failure to consult on such a far-reaching tax change could signal a more aggressive approach from the Treasury, and a tax strategy driven by the government’s need to woo floating voters.

The tax hike has further been undermined by the opposition of the GMB union, which pushed the government to tackle low taxes paid by private-equity bosses. It said the Treasury had gone about it in the wrong way.

Treasury officials offered little hope that the chancellor would rethink the tax.

They said the £900m the government intended to raise from the change was “scored” in the fiscal projections.

“When people have settled down, they’ll see it is still a very competitive rate,” a senior Treasury official said. “Has it really blunted the entrepreneurial incentive at 18%?”

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