The previous two Chancellors, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, excelled at the art of giving with one hand but taking a bit more with the other.

George Osborne looks set to continue this, with a boost in personal allowances to £8,105 that equates to an annual handout of a little over £50 for most of us. But tax hikes that have already been announced, chiefly 20 per cent VAT, will eat up that limited largesse.

Even more insidiously, inflation continues to creep upwards, with the consumer price index hitting 4.4 per cent in February and retail prices following suit, rising to 5.5 per cent. The pincer movement created by spiralling prices and higher taxes is deadly for the beleaguered UK consumer.

Businesses are equally, if not more affected by rising costs, and by and large find themselves unable to pass those on in the form of higher prices. Given the limited help the Chancellor can provide fiscally, they were looking for more than just a repetition of earlier commitments to cut back the swathes of red tape that make life much harder than it needs to be.