EXPERTS were last night divided on the impact of Chancellor George Osborne’s Budget.

Moves such as cutting fuel duty, raising the tax threshold and major incentives for businesses and entrepreneurs have been set against continuing above-inflation rises in alcohol and tobacco duty, rising National Insurance contributions and downward predictions in overall economic growth.

Chris Mundy, tax partner at accountants and business advisers Grant Thornton based at the Oxford Business Park, said: “The welcome change has been the cut in fuel duty and the introduction of the fuel stabiliser.

“From what was going to be an increase of 6p a litre we will instead see it fall by 1p a litre.”

Mr Mundy also welcomed the doubling of entrepreneur tax relief to £10m, cuts in corporation tax and extension of research and development tax credits as a boost to county firms, but said a major incentive had been avoided.

He added: “Mr Osborne has clearly made a number of moves to make the UK a more competitive place to do business.

“But what he has not done is change the 50 per cent top tax rate which has to be paid by the people who run companies – some of them will continue to find other countries a more attractive place to do business.”

Chris Lee, a partner in the business tax team at Oxford accountants James Cowper, said: “The Budget intends to help businesses and individuals, but for all George Osborne’s huffing and puffing it does little to disguise an increasingly gloomy economic picture, which sees growth falling to 1.7 per cent this year along with high inflation.”

Oxford East Labour MP Andrew Smith was also dismissive of Mr Osborne’s Budget.

He said: “There is an awful lot of giving with one hand in this Budget and taking away with lots and lots of other hands.

“The Chancellor has already taken too much money from families and is now expecting them to be grateful when he gives a tiny fraction back.”

The announcement of a £250m shared equity scheme for first-time home buyers was warmly greeted by housing experts.

Mark Charter, of Oxford estate agent Carter Jonas, said: “Boosting the market at entry level in this way can only help to release the pressure on supply throughout the housing chain.”

And Iain Nicholson, director of the Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network, was positive about some of the Budget’s business incentives.

He said: “Oxfordshire businesses will want to see how the measures announced will work in practice but there will be a welcome for much of what the Chancellor has had to say.

“What is key is that the focus on enterprise, jobs and growth he talks about produces real change.”

There was one major piece of good news for Oxfordshire as the Chancellor announced a £100m boost for science projects, which will include £10m to ensure four instruments for a new phase of the Isis neutron source at the Harwell science centre can be ordered.

Funding for the first instrument, Chipir, to test electronics used in the aerospace and computing industry, was confirmed by Science Minister David Willetts earlier this month.

The new funding means three further instruments, Imat, Larmor and Zoom, can go ahead, with work starting next month.

Harwell will also benefit from another £10m to launch the National Space Technology Programme at the International Space Innovation Centre.

Prof Keith Mason, chief executive of the Science Technology Facilities Council, said: “We welcome this investment in our scientific facilities and capabilities at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, which will help us promote economic recovery.”