There has been a mixed reaction to today's pre-Budget report from chancellor Alastair Darling.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders welcomed the announcement that mortgage payments for working-age borrowers on income support will be maintained at current levels for the next six months.
Payments of income support are helping around 100,000 households stay in their homes, and a further 113,000 older home-owners are receiving help with their mortgage through pension credits.
But it said it was disappointed - though not surprised - that the current stamp duty "holiday" will cease at the end of this year, as previously announced.
The British Retail Consortium welcomed an announcement following the PBR that retailers will be given four weeks instead of two to update price labels in stores after the VAT rate change on 1 January.
Baroness Jo Valentine, chief executive of London First, criticised a one-off windfall tax on banking.
"An ad hoc bonus-bashing tax, designed to satiate a public desire for revenge, is not the right way forward for banks, their customers or the wider economy," she said.
"There will almost certainly be unforeseen, unintended and unhelpful consequences arising from this politically motivated measure."
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) praised a series of measures designed to help small business but condemned the "headline-grabbing tax on bankers' bonuses".
Richard Lambert, CBI director general, said:
"There were two tests for this Pre-Budget report.
"First, would it increase the credibility of government plans to restore the public finances?
"Second, would it be a platform for job creation and economic growth? The government has failed on both counts.
"The chancellor has made a serious mistake imposing an extra jobs tax at a time when the economic recovery will still be fragile.
"Increasing national insurance contributions will hold back job creation and growth.
"He has also missed the opportunity to increase the UK's credibility by reducing the public deficit earlier."
He added: "A headline-grabbing tax on bankers' bonuses may have populist appeal, but the government needs to take care not to put the UK's financial services sector at a comparative disadvantage internationally. The threat of an exodus of talent is real."
The British Bankers' Association's chief executive, Angela Knight said:
"The chancellor's comments on bonuses were well trailed and we now await the details.
"This new tax has to be set in the context of commitments already made. The UK's banks have already agreed to observe pay restraints where bonuses are mostly deferred and paid in shares. We are already well ahead of the other G20 countries in doing this.
"Viewed from abroad, London may well look now like a significantly less attractive place to build a business.
"We must repeat that only concerted international agreements will succeed in reforming remuneration in the financial sector."
Dave Prentis, general secretary of UNISON, the UK's largest public sector union, reacted angrily to the one per cent, two-year pay cap and pensions cap on public sector workers, announced in the PBR.
"I am not going to sign up to this," he said.
"I know how our members feel - they feel angry and betrayed.
"It is just not on to make nurses, social workers, dinner ladies, cleaners and hospital porters pay the price for the folly of the bankers."
The British Medical Association also attacked the public sector pay freeze.
"It is a grave error to penalise hard working NHS staff - who have already delivered efficiency savings of £10 billion - with arbitrary caps on their pay," said Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA council.
"The government could have instead made real savings by slashing their bureaucratic and wasteful market based policies."
David Thomson, director of policy and public affairs at the Chartered Insurance Institute said:
"We hope that short term and electoral considerations do not overwhelm and obscure some of the longer term challenges that we need to face - most importantly climate change, the challenge of developing the skills base (both in work and new talent) to remain competitive; sustaining public education and financial capability, and promoting and growing individuals' long term savings."
The National Union of Students applauded the announcement of financial support for 10,000 low-income undergraduates to help them carry out internships in professions and give their career prospects a boost.
NUS President Wes Streeting said:
"We are delighted that the government has adopted our proposals to provide financial support for poorer students so that they can carry out internships and improve their job prospects after graduation."
Noble Francis, economics director at the Construction Products Association, said he is "extremely disappointed" that the government has confirmed capital investment will fall by 50 per cent over the next four years, "especially given its stated commitment to boost investment in national infrastructure and skills".
However, the association welcomed measures to help improve the energy efficiency of the built environment and in particular the Boiler Scrappage Scheme, as "a small step in the right direction".
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union, said:
"It is particularly welcome that even in this economic climate that the government's commitment to education remains.
"It is highly significant that the government has resisted calls to cut into the funding and pay commitments already made for 2010/11."
Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said:
“We welcome the fact that government is putting their money where their mouth is in continuing to tackle the pressing issue of child poverty with practical measures.
"The extension of the free school meals programme recognises the problems facing low income families.
"Clearly, this measure alone is not enough to meet the government's 2010 target to halve child poverty. The goal to end child poverty by 2020 hasn/t disappeared and must be met."
And The Law Society warned that the criminal justice system will be pushed to breaking point by plans to slash £360 million from the system, including the already stretched legal aid budget.
The chancellor's PBR included plans to make "savings in the criminal justice system by improving case management, putting underperforming or expensive public sector prisons out to competition during 2010-11," and reforming legal aid.
Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said:
"The Law Society is deeply concerned about the chancellor's announcement of yet further cuts in legal aid.
"The society agrees that savings in the criminal justice system through looking at better case management by all parties would be welcome, providing there are appropriate safeguards, but the criminal legal aid budget should not face yet another onslaught of generalised cuts."
