Everyone is a loser from the Budget, according to Mike Lazenby, chief executive of Kent Reliance Building Society.

"The bottom line is the country has severe financial problems and the Government is going to borrow a phenomenal amount of money over the next few years to try and buy its way out of the difficulties it has and they’re fiddling at the edges," he said.

"Its not good news for most people and as with a number of Budgets in recent years, when people read the detail everybody in some way is going to be worse off than they were before."

The small print of the Budget revealed that UK businesses like Chatham-based Kent Reliance would have to pay Vat on services from abroad, which would hit the society’s use of its EasiProcess subsidiary’s back office operation in India. "It’s madness. That’s another 15 per cent cost on our business. It will be the same for any company in the UK they do work for."

He welcomed the increase in the cash ISA tax-free allowance to £5,100 - for over-50s from October and everybody from next April but said the allowance should be introduced for all at the same time.

As for the stamp duty holiday, it had not stimulated the market and he could not understand why it had been extended.

But he felt the housing market was more buoyant that the figures suggested. "I know estate agents and travel agents who are very busy. A lot of it is about confidence and this Budget does nothing for confidence. If people were confident, in their finances and keeping their jobs, people would be spending their money and the economy would be stimulated."