The Budget: Shropshire businesses give their verdict

Here is a selection of what local companies had to say:

Employment law expert Alasdair Hobbs, of Human Results in Telford, reflected on the expansion of free childcare.

He said: “The cost of early years childcare is often a barrier to women returning to the workplace, so this is a positive step for growth and will go some way to plugging the million-plus vacancy crisis.

“However, the childcare sector is struggling with staffing issues of its own, and whilst this has to be welcome news, it must be tempered with proper funding of the many small private nurseries that work hard to provide a safe and stimulating environment for our children in what is a heavily-regulated industry.”

Brian Evans, managing partner at Lanyon Bowdler, said: “The main provisions have been leaked out over the last few days, so there’s not really anything unexpected here.

“Funded childcare will be a great help to working parents and may well free up more capacity in the labour market, but that depends on places being available so the impact might not be as big as it could be, especially in rural areas.

“The forecasts that say recession will be avoided are consistent with what I and people I talk to are seeing on the ground - that there is more going on in the housing market and in terms of commercial activity than the doom-mongers were predicting in October, but the economy is still predicted to contract this year.

“Although I can see sense in being prudent, it is disappointing that the Chancellor didn’t use the additional fiscal headroom he now has to reverse or reduce the corporation tax rise, which would have helped companies facing cashflow pressures.”

Gareth Jones, MD of In-Comm Training, which has academies in Aldridge, Shrewsbury and Telford, welcomed the Government's focus on Returnerships.

"We need to look at the detail, and whether there is funding in place to support these Returnerships and what the curriculum content is - that will be key," he said.

"Having said that, the overarching focus is one we welcome, as industry needs access to an increased talent pipeline and there are lots of excellent older workers who could reskill to bring them back into industry but via a different pathway.

"In-Comm is already working on the strategy of re-engaging and reskilling workers...our recent collaboration with Brandauer is a prime example.

"Together we have invested over £1m on creating the UK's first Precision Tooling Academy and this commercial tool room will upskill existing skilled engineers and reskill them to be toolmakers and designers.

"This will help the sector to service growing reshoring opportunities and secure the future needs of industry."

Karen Whitehead, of KEW Accountants and Tax Advisors in Telford, said: “The majority of measures in the budget are good news for large companies, but don’t provide much help to smaller businesses.

“The decision to abolish the lifetime allowance on tax-free pension contributions is fantastic news for NHS staff in particular, and the childcare reforms will be welcomed by working parents.

“However, I do think that a better way of supporting childcare providers would have been to make them zero-rated for VAT rather than exempt, which would have allowed them to claim back VAT expenses.

“As ever, we will trawl through the detail of the budget to get a full understanding of how it will affect our clients, but it seems generally positive at first glance.”

Andrew Huxley, MD of Besblock, said: “Talks of a recession and a stuttering economy have definitely had an impact on construction output, but there remains some positives in the sector and reasons to be optimistic for the rest of 2023.

“UK construction activity beat investor expectations in February to register its highest growth rate in nine months as an improving global outlook boosted commercial projects.

“Here at Besblock, our own orders are still going up as we continue to invest in new products, new people and new technology to drive the business forward.

“I am pleased to see the Government is recognising the urgency of the UK’s clean energy revolution. We have invested millions into the business to reduce our environmental impact and have a dedicated sustainable design team that is helping to prove that traditional construction can still be green.

“It is also good to see the Government taking action on the labour market and encouraging people to get back into work after the pandemic.”