Rachel Reeves has said she will amend the finance bill to soften planned changes to the tax regime for “the non-dom community” after intense lobbying from wealthy UK residents.

In the latest evidence of the government’s determination to roll out the red carpet for businesses and investors in an effort to kickstart growth, the chancellor said she would tweak tax arrangements announced in her October budget for those claiming non-domiciled status.

The current regime allows these non-doms – usually a wealthy resident in Britain whose father was born overseas – to avoid paying UK tax on their overseas earnings in exchange for fees for up to 15 years. Reeves is replacing this with a shorter residence-based regime from April.

“We have been listening to the concerns that have been raised by the non-dom community,” the chancellor told the Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker, at a fringe event at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, in comments first reported by the Times.

The planned changes relate to the rules governing the temporary repatriation facility – a transitional arrangement that will last three years from April 2025.

First announced by the Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt, the facility will allow non-doms to bring overseas income into the UK and pay a reduced tax rate. Reeves extended it from two years to three in her budget.

However, wealthy individuals had complained that the rules around the facility had been too tightly drawn, excluding some types of investment fund. The Treasury has now signalled that these will now be tweaked.

Those using the scheme will pay 12% tax on any income brought into the UK for the first two years and 15% in the third year.

Treasury sources insisted the change had not come as a result of recent reports of an exodus of wealthy individuals from the UK.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, later confirmed the planned change, telling journalists in Davos: “There is a tweak to the finance bill.”

He added: “Of course, when you’re changing a tax regime, people will want to know, and there’ll be some uncertainty there, so we’ve got to get that message out.”

Reeves and Reynolds have been touring events and parties at Davos sending the message that the UK is open for business – with the chancellor insisting that growth has to “trump” other concerns, including the government’s commitment to net zero.

The business secretary said: “We have a great pitch to make. We are talking to people who want to invest in the UK who are, I think seeing, first of all, our pitch to political stability, certainly relative to other European countries, and our commitment to openness.”

The non-dom regime is a relic of the UK’s colonial past, and allows those who claim the status to avoid paying tax on their overseas earnings in the UK.

Hunt, announced he was going to scrap the 225-year-old tax scheme in his budget last spring. Labour promised in opposition to go further than Hunt’s replacement system, and Reeves announced the registration-based regime in her 30 October budget.

The current regime protects overseas earnings from UK income tax for up to 15 years, but there were ways to preserve inheritance tax benefits after that time. Reeves’s moves to close these loopholes have been cited by some non-doms as a main reason for them quitting the UK.