Neville Bramwell, tax partner, Deloitte & Touche

"The introduction of an uncapped NIC 1 per cent charge for employees and the self employed introduces effectively a "penny on tax" and opens a new avenue for possible future tax rises. The Chancellor referred in his speech to French rates which are all uncapped and most are higher than ours - is that a warning or future increases? Expect more interest in NIC mitigation via for example, approved share schemes. Interestingly the city "dividend plan" which is an NIC avoidance method has not been stopped."

John Whiting, tax partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Mr Whitting said that while he could not object to raising money for the NHS, it was at the expense of employers: "For employers, all the give-aways are more than outweighed by the NIC increase. Employers have to find an extra £4 billion."
Those to suffer from the Budget would be those without families, on a reasonable income, and employers and said the Budget best suited a "bingo-playing person who drinks at a small brewery and commutes on an environmentally-friendly motorbike." Most of the Budget was anticipated, but the child tax credit was more generous than expected and the tax on North Sea oil profits was "very unexpected," Mr Whiting said.

Tom McGuinnes, head of middle market tax, KPMG

"This is generally a good budget fo small businesses. Although quite a number of the issues were trailed in advance, there are one or two surprises which reduce the compliance burden for small businesses. Simplification of VAT will be very welcome. I don’t think the rise in National Insurance will discourage people from taking on employees."

Anne Redstone, tax partner, Ernst & Young

"There is a lot of giving with one hand and taking with the other. 90 per cent of families are to get tax credit, but they will also pay more tax. In order to get tax credit, they will have to fill in a form like a tax return. In order to get back to almost the number you first thought of, there's an awful lot of bureaucracy."

David Norton, corporate tax partner, Andersen

"The figure that dominates is the £7bn (rising to £8bn) increase in National Insurance Contributions. This is a levy of two per cent on every job and one per cent for every self-employed person. The rise is more than enough to pay for additional NHS funding.
There are to be substantial changes to business taxation, but this is not a surprise. Most of these changes are welcome. Surprises include the abolition of stamp duty on goodwill, which will facilitate asset deals in the M&A world. That goes alongside the abolition of capital gains tax on share deals, and a reduction for entrepreneurs of capital gains tax to ten per cent. Another surprise is the application of thin capitalization rules to foreign companies operating in the UK. This will mainly hit foreign banks.
The rate of R&D tax relief is a pleasant surprise. 25pc. A company spending £1m on R&D can claim tax reduction worth £1.25m. That’s a subsidy of 7.5 per cent of R&D spending. This will be particularly valuable for pharmaceutical, defence and electronics companies."

Mark Cliff, economist, ING Barings

"It's bang in line with expectations with a hefty tax and spend package. This is something that is going to create problems with the referendum on EMU because a lot of political capital will have to be expended on public services. I believe a decision will now be taken to delay this until the next parliament."
He also said the budget measures would help remove the vulnerability for sterling and that public borrowing could come in below the latest forecast: "There will be scope for tax cuts before the next election."

Jeremy Hawkins, head of Europe FX and interest rate strategy, Bank of America

"There were no big surprises in a macro sense. I think it was tight enough to placate the financial markets but perhaps not enough for the electorate. It's a difficult balancing act. The implications for the financial markets are quite slight. There was a small tightening of the fiscal stance, reducing scope to increase interest rates. Overall it will be seen as fairly neutral."

Philip Shaw, chief economist, Investec UK

"Clearly this is a budget directed towards raising taxes in the medium term to pay for improvements to the NHS. However tax raising measures do not have an impact until next year and there is actually a tax give-away in the short term of £900m. I think the markets are slightly disappointed that there are no real steps to reduce consumer spending. The chancellor is painting a fairly optimistic picture for growth over the next three years, which is at the upper end of our expectations."

Michael Taylor, Merril Lynch

Mr Taylor said there was "nothing shocking" in the Budget and it was in line with market expectations.
However, he said the increase in employers national insurance contributions had indicated that it was potentially where future revenue could be raised.
"The NIC is supposed to be an insurance policy - it’s nothing of the sort now, it’s just another form of tax," Mr Taylor said.

Geoffrey Dicks, UK economics expert, Royal Bank of Scotland

Mr Dicks described the Budget as "tax and spend big time" and said the biggest surprise was that employers were "going to be stung," with increased NICs. He added:"We’re going to pay for our NHS with national insurance contributions."

Doug McAvoy, general secretary, National Union of Teachers

"The Chancellor’s commitment to increased expenditure on education throughout the present Parliament will be welcomed in schools across the land, as will the increased levels of direct grant to be spent as schools see as appropriate. What the Chancellor has not told us is how much the increase in overall spending on education is to be.
The question remains as to whether the additional expenditure will be sufficient to provide the support to ease teachers’ workload. The answer will not be known until the Comprehensive Spending Review in July. Without adequate funding, recruitment into the profession will continue to decline.
It must be assumed that the rise in direct grants to schools is additional to any increase from the Comprehensive Spending Review."

John Monks, general secretary, TUC

"This is an honest and intelligent budget, which gets the balance broadly right. The extra money for health will be widely welcomed, and while no-one likes paying extra tax, the country knows that it cannot have excellent public services without paying for them. There are no quick fixes or gimmicks to improving public services, it will take hard work, sustained investment and partnership with staff.
In the best sense of the word, this is a highly political budget. It recognises the common interests of core supporters and middle England, it helps tackle poverty and gives the government clear themes for the rest of this term."

Dave Prentis, general secretary, Unison

"The Chancellor has given the NHS the kiss of life with today's budget statement. We congratulate the government for having the courage of its convictions to do the right thing by our health and public services. Millions of people will benefit from better quality health care. We are delighted that the government has listened to Unison and ignored the carping critics who want to see the NHS fade away. And we are delighted that the government has recognised that you won't get world class public services on the cheap.
Unison will work with the government to ensure that the extra money brings about the world class public services that our communities deserve."

Bill Morris, General secretary, Transport and General Workers' Union

"It is a Budget for health and home. This is the first instalment towards a first class health service and another instalment to eliminating pensioner poverty and eradicating child poverty.
Much has been done by the Labour government, but much remains to be done. This Budget is another step forward. It is not the final word."

Digby Jones, director general, CBI

"The Chancellor has given with one hand but taken with the other. Companies will be delighted by measures to boost innovation and entrepreneurship. But there will be deep dismay at the net increase of some £2.5 billion in the cost of doing business in Britain.
We are worried that he is now imposing a business tax burden that impacts directly on the cost of employing people at a time when UK competitiveness is being put to the test. An increase in employers' NIC's impacts on every business of every size regardless of whether or not they are making profits.
Mr Brown has rightly recognised that extra public expenditure must be matched with challenging reforms. We welcome the establishment of independent monitoring of expenditure."

George Cox, director general, Institute of Directors

"We all accept that there is a very pressing need to improve the public services in this country. Health provision has fallen behind other leading industrialised countries; there are major deficiencies in the educational sector; crime is an increasing problem; and the transport infrastructure falls well short of what the country needs.
But merely throwing money at the problems will not solve them. Unless there is major reform, the risk is that the money will just disappear without noticeable benefit.
However, the Budget demonstrates that when business succeeds and generates economic growth, we call benefit."

Nick Goulding, chief executive, Forum of Private Business

"National insurance is a tax on jobs and comes straight off the bottom line. Coming on top of increasing employment red tape - the single most important problem currently - this will be a further disincentive to employ."

Matthew Taylor, director, Institute for Public Policy Research

"This Budget marks an important turning point in progressive politics in Britain. The commitment to additional expenditure funded by additional taxes provides us with the funds that are necessary for the renewal of public services while recognising that this is not sufficient to achieve the ambitious changes required.
The Budget also marks a new, honest, open politics that addresses the real choices before us as citizens. There is now no fundamental barrier to Britain achieving levels of social justice and public service to compare with the best in Europe."

Will Hutton, chief Executive, The Work Foundation

"Beneath the Chancellor's rhetoric lay a solid redistributive budget, which also creates the space for enterprise and entrepreneurship. But this is only half of what needs to be done to address the productivity challenge. An enterprise culture needs to be supported by an enterprise infrastructure and the government needs to champion organisational dynamism with as much commitment as it is now giving the NHS."

Richard Burge, chief executive, The Countryside Alliance

"It is important to remember that rural people get less in government spending in all the key areas when compared to metropolitan areas. However, the Alliance enthusiastically welcomes the tax break for village pubs and small breweries with the duty paid on own beer halved, this a cut worth 14p off each pint. We hope to see more benefits of this kind for rural communities."

Rebecca Willis, director, Green Alliance Campaign

"The main thing is that the Treasury’s move has opened up a debate for the use of economic instruments for protecting the environment. We want the Treasury to continue racheting up the environment tax."

Martin Temple, director general, Engineering Employers Federation

"The last thing manufacturers needed from the Budget was a major hit to their cost base. Whilst we welcome the R&D tax credit and the measures for small firms these will provide minimal benefit compared to additional costs of over £3 billion a year which will result from the 1 per cent increase in employers national insurance contributions."

David Marshall, director general, Society of British Aerospace Companies

Dr Ian Bogle, chairman, British Medical Association

"This programme of investment offers real hope to the people of the United Kingdom who depend on the NHS and to the million people working in it who want the NHS to succeed and want their efforts on behalf of the patients to bear fruit. We will be a critical and supportive friend to this project. We intend to play a full part on the programme of reform, but we will continue to tell the full unvarnished truth about where change is needed and where doctors and nurses simply need to be allowed to get on with the job without the distraction of hoops, hurdles and targets."

Andy Bell, head of public affairs, Kings Fund

"For the NHS the news is very good. There is to be sustained investment along the lines of the recommendations of the Wanless report. The budget is very good for those working in and using the service. Equally important is the rise in social care funding. Unless social care can keep pace with the NHS, the service will simply be fighting the fires caused by weakness in social care."

Martin Barnes, chief executive, Child Poverty Action Group

"We are pleased with extra money for the child tax credit. It was in line with predictions. Very welcome is the extra £9 per week for families, as well as the commitment to increase the level of tax credits at least in line with earnings for the remainder of this parliament. To achieve the Chancellor’s child poverty goal clearly he has more to do in the next two years. Given the choices he had to make, overall we are very pleased."

Roger Brocklehurst, Director, The Local Investment Fund

"Having long advocated this type of fiscal incentive [Community Investment Tax Credit], we welcome this imaginative and groundbreaking measure to encourage private investment in under-invested communities.
The CITC will reduce the cost of funds that we raise, and as a charity, clients will receive the benefits through lower interest rates, thereby improving their own sustainability. LIF intends to take full advantage of this new incentive."

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