Gordon Brown is planning tough new action to clamp down on tax evasion, the FT reports.

Ahead of next week's Budget, the paper says the chancellor is concerned that VAT losses caused by avoidance schemes could be up to £3 billion a year.

Meanwhile the Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, forecasts that Brown will use the Budget "to stake his claim as the greatest chancellor Britain has ever had".

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has urged him to freeze property-related taxes.