PATRICIA Marquis is the regional director for the Royal College of Nursing responsible for Oxfordshire.

She said: “The public sector pay freeze, over £21,000, will affect most of our members and is massively disappointing for them.

“They’re seeing more work to be done, with possibly fewer people, and their pay is frozen.

“It’s a myth to think we have gold-plated pensions. The average nurse’s pension is £5,000 per year.

“Morale is starting to take a dip, because of the pressure employees face in terms of the financial position.

“We’re also seeing recruitment delays, because vacancies have to be checked and agreed at a senior level.”

She added: “No-one is under any illusions and no-one thinks we should be immune but it does feel like an attack at the moment.”

  • In March the last Labour government told cidermakers like Robert Fitchett they would face a 10 per cent above inflation rise in tax.

But the new coalition Government scrapped the plan yesterday, and Mr Fitchett, from Upton, near Harwell, said: “I’m delighted that the rise in tax on cider will not now occur. It would have created havoc.

“Luckily we’re too small to pay tax anyway. But the duty rise would have been a brake on expansion and on enterprise for small producers.”

He added that the rise in VAT, though not good news, would affect all sales, rather than just cider, as the duty rate rise would have done.

  • Jo Watkins, who has just set up Darn It and Stitch, a haberdashery shop in Blue Boar Street, Oxford, said she was most concerned about the 2.5 per cent rise in VAT, which comes into force next January.

She said: “It will affect the materials I buy, such as fabrics, and I will speed up my buying before January, when it comes into effect.

“I will have to add VAT on to my goods as well, but the majority are small items, so it will be pennies rather than pounds.”

Ms Watkins added that she welcomed the cut in small business tax and the rise in the National Insurance threshold, as she will be looking to start employing staff to work with her in the shop in the near future.

  • Landlord Darren Hazell said he believed the reduction in housing benefits, to a maximum of £400 per week for a house, could lead to a shortage of property in Oxford for those who needed it most.

Mr Hazell, managing director of the Lettings Centre, in Headington, said: “Rents have already started to fall, because the council has started cracking down on benefits.

“Landlords need to pay mortgages, so will upgrade their properties to attract private tenants.”

The rise in capital gains tax for higher rate earners, from 18 per cent to 28 per cent, which affects those with more than one property, was not as high as Mr Hazell expected.

But he added that he did not expect any rise in the supply of rental properties in the city, as he did not feel property would be such an attractive investment.