The Daily Telegraph has reported that government teams set up to reduce the 'black economy' only produced an extra £29m last year.

The 11 regionally based Shadow Economy Teams and the Joint Shadow Economy Teams resulted in just over 3,300 businesses being brought into the tax-paying net, generating £26.4m. They also identified 229 'ghost'' businesses, which yielded £2.7m, the paper says.

HM Revenue & Customs rejected suggestions that the returns were modest.

A Customs spokesman said: 'We get a good return on our investment. We recover £16 for every £1 we spend.'

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