Leading institutional investors, the London Stock Exchange and finance directors are increasingly confident that their campaign to persuade the Government to cut stamp duty on share trading is making progress. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is understood to be particularly sympathetic to the arguments put by LSE chairman, Don Cruickshank, and other trade bodies, that reducing or abolishing stamp duty would be a huge boost to London's equity markets and make substantial savings for private investors.

Cruickshank, whose appointment to the LSE is believed to have been backed by Brown, has been outspoken on the need to abolish stamp duty to reduce the cost of capital for UK companies.