Alistair Darling will hold an unprecedented meeting with the City’s most influential lobby group tomorrow in an effort to repair relations frayed by recent government tax proposals.

The Times has learnt that the Chancellor has agreed to appear before the Association of British Insurers (ABI) tomorrow, when it holds its board meeting. It will be the first time that a British chancellor has spoken at an ABI board gathering and emphasises the kind of pressure that the Treasury has been under from business.

The ABI board includes some of the most senior figures in British fund management and the insurance industry and they are eager to talk to Mr Darling about the tax rights of British-based companies. It is understood that attending the meeting was the Chancellor’s idea.

Stephen Haddrill, the director-general of the ABI, told The Times that the association would be asking the Treasury to ensure that UK companies were not taxed on their overseas profits. He said: “We want to talk about how people can bring their genuine offshore earnings back into the UK without being taxed again.”

Apparent moves by the Treasury to consider levying a tax on overseas income have caused a storm among UK businesses.

Mr Darling will signal a climbdown today on the issue of offshore tax when he speaks to business leaders at the CBI conference. Treasury sources said that they were eager to take account of the impact of any tax changes on specific industry sectors. One source said: “Clearly, we want to look at how these reforms might affect individual sectors, including those dealing with intellectual property. We are committed to a revenue-neutral package that enhances competitiveness while protecting UK tax revenues.”

After fiascos over changes to capital gains tax and an annual charge for wealthy nondomiciled foreigners, several companies in the financial services sector have given warning that they are considering moving overseas for tax purposes.

Mr Haddrill said that, as well as leaving Britain, European insurers not already headquartered here were shunning any prospect of relocating here. He said that new European Union rules on insurers’ solvency would make it easier for companies to run all their European operations from one place. “We want that place to be the UK,” he said. He said that the ABI would ask Mr Darling for a central consultative role in the Treasury’s continuing review of UK tax policy, put in place in response to the storm of protest.

Mr Haddrill said that the ABI, which also acts on behalf of institutional investors, would lobby Mr Darling on banking reform. The Treasury is considering changes to the role played by the Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority – the so-called tripartite authorities – when a bank finds itself in financial trouble.

This has come under fierce criticism in the wake of the orchestrated rescue of Northern Rock, the mortgage bank that has been nationalised in a move likely to leave shareholders with nothing.