EXMOUTH residents have given a mixed reaction to last week’s Budget.

Chancellor George Osborne announced a one pence cut in fuel duty, a cut in corporation tax and an increase in tax on cigarettes and alcohol.

The chancellor also announced a rise in the personal tax allowance and a cut in the pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.

Reacting to the budget, Jean McGee, of Exeter Road, said that while the drop in fuel duty would help people, everyone would have to accept the need to cut back.

“I’m glad of the petrol decrease because it’s hitting so many people in so many firms.

“I think we’re just going to have to knuckle down and bear it. We wouldn’t want to end up like Portugal, would we?”

However, Leigh-Ann Freer, 34, said that she thought the budget should have done more for families.

“I think we’re �400 worse off as a family. I’m one of the majority, I think, where, if you’re married, have a family and work, then you’re really skint, basically.”

JA Clarke, 65, from St Andrews Road, thought pensioners had been given a raw deal.

“In my opinion, it was a load of garbage.

“For the older people, it hasn’t really done anything. I’m retired and what’s it done for me? Not a lot. We can send all these planes off to Libya, but if I want a new pair of glasses, it’s gone up to two years wait because they can’t afford it.

“I’ve paid taxes since I was 14 and what have I got out of it?”

Meanwhile, Vicky Edbrooke, 78, from Maer Lane, complained that the budget process was too complicated to fully understand it.

“It’s difficult to say how it affects us, because you seem to hear so much about the budget that it’s difficult to get an overview of it all,” she said.

“I think if you’ve got enough saved you can still survive, but I’m concerned about how our younger relatives will manage.”