What do different groups of people in Huddersfield think about yesterday's budget?
The Pensioners
RETIRED joiner Donald Crowther and his wife Doreen have welcomed the Government’s plans to fund more apprenticeships.
The Budget won’t have an impact on their finances as pensioners.
Mrs Crowther, 77, a retired office worker said: "We are pleased with the announcement for Government funding for another 40,000 apprentices.
"Donald served an apprenticeship and we are pleased the Government has decided that more young people need to work with their hands rather than go to university."
Mrs Crowther, of Heaton Drive, Kirkheaton, said as neither herself nor her husband smoked and they didn’t often drink, this part of the Budget did not really affect them.
But she welcomed the 1p fuel duty cut, although she thought it was not really enough to make a big difference.
The couple also welcomed the increase in tax allowance for working people.
"It is good if people can earn a bit more before it is taken away in tax," she said.
Mrs Crowther commented on increasing food prices.
"We were brought up during the war years, so my advice to people would be just to buy what they need and make do," she said.
Regarding pensions she said as herself and her husband had worked and managed to save a little, they were lucky that they did not have to rely on the state pension.
The Smoker
WAITER Grant Spencer, who smokes 20 to 30 a day, was unimpressed by the Chancellor’s announcement that the price of a packet of cigarettes would rise by 2 per cent above inflation.
"I didn’t know about the increase but I suppose it’s better news than normal because cigarettes have been getting more expensive over the last few years,’’ he said. "They seem to have become extortionate."
The 21-year-old, who lives on Bath Street in the town centre, smokes Benson and Hedges, which currently cost around £6.80 for a packet of 20.
But Grant, who works as a waiter at Coffee Evolution on Church Street, does not believe a 2p rise is enough to persuade him to stop.
"I don’t think there’s anything the Government could do to make me quit,’’ he said.
"If people want to smoke, they will smoke.
"If the Government put up the price by £2 or £3 above inflation I would have to cut back."
The Developer
MEASURES to support the property sector were welcomed by a Holme Valley developer.
But Richard Conroy, chief executive of Brockholes-based Conroy Brook Developments Ltd, said Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget was "tinkering around the edges" in an effort not to "rock the ship" as the economy showed signs of recovery.
Mr Conroy welcomed the "modest measure" to pump £250m – funded from the bankers’ levy – into helping first-time buyers on to the property ladder and free a "log-jam" which was affecting all house sales.
But he said the Government’s "presumption in favour of development" sat strangely alongside its Localism Bill, which would give residents a greater say in what development took place.
Mr Conroy, who business employs 25 people directly, but provides work for up to 250 tradespeople, said: "I don’t think my industry was expecting a great deal from the Budget. The table is pretty bare."
