Put the champagne on ice and cancel the party if you’re getting ready to celebrate stability in pensions legislation.

That was the message from Steven Cameron, pensions director at Aegon, who believes the rumoured U-turn on tax relief overhaul does not necessarily mean no change is afoot in next week’s Budget,.

He said: "The Chancellor may have pulled the plug on changes to pension tax relief in next week’s Budget, but we're not out of the woods yet and he may have one or two tricks up his sleeve.

“So we shouldn’t be celebrating stability just yet.”

His comments come after widespread national media reports at the weekend suggesting George Osborne had binned plans to unleash further radical changes. But there has been no official Treasury comment either confirming or denying this.

Mr Cameron said: “The Treasury’s original consultation never discounted retaining the current system, but equally, with Deficit pressures, it was widely accepted that ‘no change’ was not an option for the Treasury. So we may see adjustments within the existing framework such as further reductions in how much can be paid into pensions or even restrictions on new entitlements to tax free cash going forward.”

Mr Cameron said: “The Treasury comment than ‘now’ is not the right time for radical change, does beg the question of how soon after the Brexit Referendum might the right time arrive. A commitment to no further changes within this Government’s term would be very welcome, but this may not be the last Budget where we’ve been holding our breath in anticipation of major changes to pensions tax relief.”

He described the Pension ISA idea, which has come under fire from many in the industry as “hugely problematic”.

This would have required all existing pensions to be frozen with a new arrangement put in place for future contributions, adding significant complexity for every existing pension saver, he said.

Jon Gwinnett, product technical manager at Nucleus, said: “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of pension reform and I would regard change as shelved, rather than off the agenda. As a country, we need a long term vision of what pension provision should look like, and an end to the confidence damaging effects of using pensions for short term political ends.”

The Treasury said it does not comment on what it deems ‘Budget speculation’.