Budget help welcomed but with pleas for much more
Molly Smith/BBCWhile help to ease rising cost announced in Chancellor John Healey's Budget have been welcomed, some residents and businesses across the North East and Cumbria said they do not go nearly far enough.
In the first Budget since Andy Burnham became Prime Minster, families facing cost-of-living pressures are being offered some "breathing space", as Healey put it.
Announcements include support with energy bills, tax cuts - and increases - as well as changes affecting wages, benefits, pensions and housing.
However, echoing concerns expressed since the financial crash almost two decades ago, many people fear costs will still outstrip incomes without bigger and more permanent changes to the economy.
Sunderland retiree Freddie Hardy, 68, said the budget had "not impressed us at all" and gave it "three out of ten".
Despite rises to pensions and a new tax-free allowance for low-income pensioners, Hardy said: "[Healey] hasn't issued any statements for the working man about the things that actually affect us, it does nothing.
"I've worked all my life and I'm worried my pension might not suffice when I get a little bit older due to hospital treatments."
Molly Smith/BBCFellow Sunderland pensioner Dorothy Gorringe, 75, said she supported the creation of more affordable and social housing.
"It's quite urgent because young people, first time buyers, they can't afford houses," she said.
However, she would have liked to see more done to help with the cost of food, despite Healey announcing import taxes would be removed on more than 100 products.
"Everything's getting smaller and we're paying more for it," she said.
While the threshold at which shops start paying business rates in England is to be increased, the amount of money people have in their pockets impacts what they are willing to spend.
Ness Brigham, who runs The Earth Store Boutique in Saltburn, said: "We do see differences in spending; you really have to stick it out."
In Middlesbrough, one local said rising food costs "make you think twice about what you're spending".
Another said of petrol prices: "This time last year I was paying £45 a month, I'm now paying £95."
Healey announced a freeze on fuel duty would be extended to July, but prices at the pump have shot up since the start of the US and Israeli war in Iran.
In Carlisle, taxi driver Stuart Curtis said the cost of fuel was "crippling" and the freeze was "not going to touch the sides".
"It's pointless, not going to do a thing," he said. "This Budget means nothing to me and millions of others."
Energy costs remained a focus for Cumbrian dairy farmer Robert Craig who said: "We spend roughly £30,000 per business on electricity and those contracts are set to renew over the next year, but we're seeing a 20 or possibly 25% uplift."
Community pastor at St Mark's Church in Barrow Gill Grisedale said families who used its support services were also struggling with energy bills.
"We're seeing more and more people who are working but not able to make ends meet, including people on zero hour contracts," she said.
"People come here so they don't have to put the heating on at home."
Many households will be eligible for a one-off payment of £100 to help with bills.
A VAT cut on electricity has been extended to July and standing charges – fixed daily fees customers pay regardless of usage – to be scrapped from gas bills.
However, Craig said scrapping this would make no difference many rural homes, which could not be connected to the gas grid and relied on increasingly expensive oil.
LDRSGateshead was name-checked by the chancellor, who said new devolution loans would allow mayoral authorities to carry out large projects such as the town's regeneration.
On devolution, Healey announced money from business rates would be kept by mayors by the end of the decade, with 20% of that revenue remaining local from next year.
A share of income tax will also go to mayors from 2028 and they will be given greater control over how money can be spent.
Labour North East Mayor Kim McGuinness said: "It's about time we stopped sending all of our tax to Westminster."
Additional reporting by Stephanie Finnon and Luke Walton.
