In his pre-budget speech this week, the Chancellor Gordon Brown announced that he has changed his mind and decided not to introduce a tax break, which would, from April next year, have allowed investors to directly place residential property into a Self-Invested Personal Pension (Sipp) effectively tax-free.

A post pre-budget speech note read: "Sipps will be prohibited from obtaining tax advantages when investing in residential property and certain other assets such as fine wines, from 6 April 2006."