LONDON (Bloomberg) — Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne set up a body charged with simplifying taxes for thousands of companies and individuals in a bid to attract investors to the UK and stimulate economic growth.

The panel, led John Whiting of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and former Treasury minister Michael Jack, will identify areas in tax law that need simplification and consult with companies, lawyers and accountants on how to make the rules less complex. They will be assisted by a small secretariat and neither will draw a salary.

The coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats forged after the May 6 general election says the previous Labour government expanded the UK's tax code to 11,000 pages and introduced more than 400 tax breaks. The panel will challenge Osborne, who remains in charge of taxation, to keep the rules simple.

"There is a spaghetti bowl of reliefs, exemptions and allowances and I want create a simpler tax code," Osborne said at a news conference in London yesterday. "It is a distant dream that one day people might actually understand the laws they have been asked to comply with."

The Institute of Directors, a business lobby group, said the British tax code "is among the most complex in the world, and it has been getting worse every year" and that the new body will only succeed "if it has teeth". It said ministers should be forced to respond to all of the panel's recommendations.

Treasury minister David Gauke said at the same news conference that the office "will provide important advice that will help inform us in making the right reforms to the tax system."