Soundbites in the City

The decision to introduce the National Living Wage is intellectually bankrupt… This Budget was a missed opportunity to bring down the 45p rate of income tax. Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs

The Budget was a thank you to middle England for coming out to vote in May. Liberated from the coalition, the Chancellor rewarded his core voters – baby boomers and pensioners – with a couple of drops of tax sweetener in their afternoon tea. Iain McCluskey, tax partner at PWC

It’s deeply disappointing to see politicians once again syphoning cash from tomorrow’s pensioners to pay for today’s political priorities. Pension saving shouldn’t be treated as a secret ATM for Government finances. Joanne Segars, CEO, National Association of Pension Funds

This collection of tax measures supports the majority of savers. Julie Hutchison, savings and tax expert at Standard Life

Britain may lack the sunny beaches of most offshore tax havens, but the continued slashing of corporation tax is an unambiguous call to foreign companies to bring their business here.

Toby Ryland, corporate tax partner at HW Fisher

Cutting help with low incomes and high housing costs will punish millions who have already seen incomes fall by £40 per week since the financial crash. While the exclusion of younger workers from the national living wage is another reminder that this Government has little else to offer them but exploitation or poverty pay. Len McCluskey, general secretary of Unite

The OBR’s forecasts show the gamble implicit in the Budget. If productivity remains at the level of recent history, the economy will grow a third more slowly than under the base case of improving productivity. Mark Gregory, chief economist at EY