TOO little, too late is the verdict of hauliers in Bromsgrove on Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-Budget statement, designed to silence New Labour's critics, while pensioners gave it a cautious welcome.

Mr Brown has proposed an inflation-busting £5 increase in pensions and a freeze on fuel tax last Wednesday to appease dissatisfied OAPs and lorry drivers.

He also offered a cut in vehicle excise duty, said to save the average haulier £750 a year, and a boost for the winter fuel allowance to £200.

But, Alistair Swift, from Dodford, who runs Swifts Transport, said: "We would have liked to see a little more. It's not until next March that we'll feel any benefit."

Mr Swift, whose fuel bill is about £280,000 a year, welcomed the introduction of charges on foreign hauliers in Britain, but feared the European Union would rule it illegal.

"When we go abroad, even just in a car, we have to pay tolls on their roads but they have cheaper vehicles, lower fuel costs and lower road fund licensing," he said.

Chief officer of Bromsgrove Age Concern, Shelagh Keen, said that elderly people she had spoken to welcomed the increases in pensions and fuel allowance.

"It's substantial enough and an acceptable rise." But she was concerned the new pension credit scheme was vague and not well understood.