Gordon Brown, the UK chancellor, moved to appease pensions lobby groups and the venture capital industry by commissioning an audit of his controversial proposals on individual pensions limits and offering tax breaks to private equity investors.

Brown indicated in his pre-Budget speech on Wednesday that he was listening to objections to a proposed £1.4m (€1.9m) cap on an individual's pensions pot, labelled by critics as a 'wealth tax' on pensions. Brown has asked the National Audit Office to investigate the impact of such a move.