By Ian Findlay

IT WAS the tenth Budget from the man who wants to take over at Number 10—but if there was any anticipation of a giveaway presentation from Chancellor Gordon Brown it was dispelled in a fraction over an hour.

The consensus from the members of our Budget panel from accountants Henderson & Loggie in Dundee was that his latest effort was somewhat bland.

Director Angela Haig said the Chancellor had again delivered “a Budget of stealth.”

“This has very much been his tactic before and he has continued with it today. While he does increase allowances in line with inflation, he does not increase them in line with increases in wages and this obviously means than people and businesses have to pay more tax,” she said.

“Similarly, the increases in the thresholds for stamp duty and inheritance tax, while they may be welcome, are not in line with levels of house price increases being seen across the country. It is disappointing.”

Angela and her colleagues from Henderson Loggie—partner David Dewar, manager Kathleen Coupar, consultant Nicola MacEwan and VAT manager Alan Davis—agreed that, despite Mr Brown’s attempts to present it otherwise, the Budget was, overall, “flat.”

They agreed most benefit would be derived by low-wage- earning families with young children. Otherwise there was little cheer for other families or businesses as a whole.

“Even as he attempts to help low income families the Chancellor has chosen to use extremely complicated methods to go about it,” said Angela. “The family tax credit system is still a shambles and nothing he has done in the Budget has done anything to resolve that situation.”

As far as business was concerned, there seemed little or nothing to offer any real encouragement. “Once again it has been a case of tinkering around the edges.”

Angela said Tory leader David Cameron was right to point out that Britain was now taxed much more heavily than it had been 10 years ago.

“The other significant problem with the latest Brown Budget—and, indeed, others he has delivered before—is that once again the devil will be in the detail, if you can find it. It appears that it will be a case of finding out precisely what the implications are of some his measures when the relevant legislation is published in due course. It was also significant, surely, that he made no mention of measures for the health service at a time when the NHS is very much in the spotlight.”