Government leaders in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man have signalled their backing for greater tax transparency, following demands from David Cameron for the UK's offshore tax havens to 'get their house in order'.

The Prime Minister's call for action was contained in a letter earlier this week to 10 British Crown dependencies and overseas territories. He said that 'lower taxes are only sustainable if what is owed is actually paid - and if the rules to achieve this are set and enforced fairly to create a level playing field right across the world'.

In his response, Isle of Man chief minister Allan Bell, said: 'As far as the Isle of Man is concerned Mr Cameron is pushing at an open door. We are well ahead with this agenda and fully support the level playing field objective as a fairer and more effective solution for governments and business.'

Cameron's letter said he wanted to see countries develop action plans on beneficial ownership which were 'fully resourced and properly managed'.

Bell said that the Isle of Man is one of the few countries in the world to have made such a regime mandatory and already had onsite regulatory supervision in order to ensure compliance. He noted: 'we will be happy to share our experience in this regard.'

Bell also said that the Isle of Man is 'seriously considering' signing up to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Assistance in Tax Matters, which aims to include developing countries within tax information exchange networks and is another of Cameron's demands.

In his response to the Prime Minister, Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo said the move to create a level playing field 'is of fundamental importance and is vital to Gibraltar, which has been playing by the rules for years only to see others entirely disregard them.'

The country is the only overseas territory that is also an EU member, and Picardo said Gibraltar has long had a policy of strict compliance with EU and international standards on tax information exchange and transparency which includes signing 26 tax information exchange agreements and a commitment to entering a Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement with the US.

Picardo also said Gibraltar has 'already undertaken to form part of a group of British jurisdictions setting the standards on tax information exchange and accessibility to information on beneficial ownership.'