Financial secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms has confirmed the government's commitment to improving the corporate tax regime in spite of its obvious concentration on the current global financial firestorm. But he said he wouldn't want to 'overstate the extent to which any chancellor would take action in the present situation'. Speaking at a CBI conference in Westminster yesterday on the theme 'Is the corporate tax system fit for purpose?' Timms said: 'Last week was a powerful reminder of how connected the global financial market is. Healthy companies will be the ones more capable of coping with crisis.' Addressing the CBI's concerns set out in its September report UK Business Tax: A Compelling Case for Change, which calls for radical reforms to UK corporation tax to ensure stability, certainty and consistency, Timms said that it was not necessary for UK plc to 'press the panic button'. Referring to concerns over the flight of some multinationals to more competitive tax regimes, he said it was not 'all bad news'. He highlighted the recent China Mobile announcement that it was to set up its European headquarters in London. He admitted that progress on reforms was needed sooner rather than later. The challenge for the government, he said, was to 'deliver simplicity' and 'avoid uncertainty'. Answering questions on the state of the government's fiscal purse given the £39bn bank bail-out announced by the government on the same day of the conference, Timms said that the new figures were being calculated in the light of the forthcoming pre-Budget report. He questioned whether at a 'deeper level' there will have been a big change. 'We need more time to discover this,' he said. 'The government's fiscal position is not about the bail-out; it's about the underlying fiscal position.' The importance of the economy has been hammered home to the public (who put it only sixth on their list of priorities behind crime etc last year). Vince Cable, deputy liberal democrat party leader and shadow chancellor, commented that he hoped the current high emotions would be focused into constructive changes.