Whatever is announced in the UK Budget on March 16, higher rate pensions tax relief looks to have had its day. How corporate pension schemes will react, however, is much less certain.

The government's consultation, which closed in September 2015, put forward two proposals for reform of tax relief on pension contributions (see box, opposite): a flat rate of relief for all members (regardless of their tax band) or a complete revision of the pensions taxation, making them similar in treatment to individual savings accounts, which were introduced in the late 1990s and are known as ISAs. It has promised a response in the March 2016 Budget.