CHANCELLOR Jeremy Hunt's “budget for growth” has had a mixed reaction from businesses and figures across Dorset.

The budget focuses on growth, by reforming childcare, pensions and bringing more people back into the workforce, whilst also providing more support for the cost-of-living crisis.

However, some concerns have been raised over whether the measures announced will work.

Managing partner of Bournemouth law firm Coles Miller, Neil Andrews, questioned if the budget will succeed in bringing people back into employment.

“Many parents still struggle to balance work with looking after their children. Will the extra childcare funding be enough?” Mr Andrews said.

“Possibly not, given the extra charges and conditions that some nurseries impose.

“Meanwhile, many older workers who retired early did so because they’d simply had enough of work.”

Bournemouth restauranteur Andy Lennox called the budget an “utter shambles” for the hospitality industry, saying the introduction of Draught Relief would make no difference.

“From an industry perspective, there’s literally no support whatsoever. Absolutely nothing,” he said.

“We’re facing a cliff edge. The fourth biggest industry in the UK, and it was completely ignored.”

He added: “You will see closures now.”

Ian Girling, chief executive of Dorset Chamber, said the budget offered “some light at the end of the tunnel”, but it is “a blow” that Dorset and the south west missed out on the investment zones announced.

He said: “It will be important that we as a county lobby hard to win as much of the newly announced £200m funding for local regeneration projects as possible.”

David Stevens, retirement director at Bournemouth-based LV=, said scrapping the lifetime allowance (LTA) and increasing the annual allowance would be welcomed by savers in the UK.

“Many people will be celebrating the Government’s announcement to scrap the LTA,” he said.

“It penalised good investment decisions and removing it will simplify a complex pensions tax system.

“The increase to the annual allowance to £60,000 is also the first since April 2010, but it is still significantly lower than its previous highest amount of £255,000 12 years ago.”

Managing partner at Dorset law firm Ellis Jones Solicitors, Nigel Smith, said the reintegration of people back into the workforce would need to be “carefully managed”.

“The Chancellor’s Budget may be a rallying cry for the economically inactive to re-enter the jobs market but it is also a clarion call for employers and HR officers to revisit their policies and procedures to ensure they are appropriate for every stage of the process, from recruitment to onboarding and eventual employment,” he said.

Partner at the Bournemouth office of chartered accountants Saffrey Champness, David Chismon, said that attention will need to be paid to announcements surrounding the replacement of the 150 per cent super-deduction on investment for companies with a 100 per cent allowance.

He said: “We will need to consider the detailed announcements but the speech clearly referred to this being of use for “companies”, rather than “businesses”, so it seems that partnerships and sole-traders could be left behind.”