TRADERS in Bromsgrove and Droitwich Spa have given last week's budget a cautious welcome but say it will have little effect on their day-to-day business.

Measures include an increase and extension of maternity pay for mothers, two weeks paid paternity leave is introduced, seven-and-a-half million pensioners will now pay no tax or tax at the ten per cent rate, a six per cent increase on a pack of 20 cigarettes but duty on wine, beer and whisky was frozen.

Bromsgrove Marketing Partnership (BroMark) chairman Anita Mears said town traders had given the measures a "cautious" welcome.

She told the Advertiser/Messenger: "Overall BroMark members felt the budget would have little effect on their businesses.

"Certainly there was good news for new, smaller companies regarding the rising of the VAT threshold and for larger companies regarding corporate and business tax.

"However, for the majority of small, independent firms in the town there appears to be little in the way of tangible help."

Chamber of Commerce Herefordshire and Worcestershire's representation and lobbying manager, Chris Harvey, said businesses would have to wait and see whether what they had been given with one hand would be taken away with the other.

Town Tory MP Julie Kirkbride said there was "nothing to get excited about".

She added: "I was very disappointed by what was very subdued affair."

Headteachers campaigning for a fairer funding deal for county pupils welcomed the money given directly to schools.

Worcestershire Headteachers' Association spokesman and the head of South Bromsgrove High School, Phil McTague, said that by using this method, all schools in the country would get an equal share.

Worcestershire's share of the cash looks set to equal £2m.