Facing a ballooning public debt and the need to convince international markets that the UK had a plan to retain its creditworthiness, Darling turned his guns on the public sector, bankers and the middle classes in his speech to parliament.
However, fears of significant tax increases for businesses were not realised and the Time to Pay tax deferral scheme was extended.
Nicholas Mockett of Moorgate Capital said: "The tax postponement could help keep businesses alive. Companies unable to borrow from banks are having to find cashflow out of their National Insurance and PAYE contributions."
In a PBR where no news was good news for the print industry, there were few points of note for the sector aside from the tax postponement extension and the widely anticipated delay on the 1p increase in corporation tax.
In addition, the government extended the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, which has been largely hailed as successful in gaining finance for small businesses.
The scheme has already helped 6,000 small businesses and will be extended for 12 months with an additional £500m of finance backed by the government.
John Wright, FSB national chairman said: "Extending the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme is a welcome move, although we wanted to see the scheme extended indefinitely and promoted further to help small firms get much-needed access to finance.
"The Government has missed a chance to really tackle a difficult credit market by failing to create more options for access to finance, and more competition among high street banks.
"The Government should have addressed this challenge and looked at options such as a regional stock exchange to help small and fast growing businesses capture finance."
Elsewhere, National Insurance contributions will rise for companies and employers by 0.5% in April 2011 and the temporary increase in threshold for business rates on empty properties to above £18,000 was extended.
However, the Conservatives have voiced their opposition to the NI increase rasing the possibility that it will be scrapped before it is due to come into effect.
Innovative print businesses and inkjet developers could also benefit from the introduction of a 10% corporation tax rate on income that stems from patents in the UK.
Meanwhile, the government announced plans to scale back public sector spending and impose a one-off 50% tax on bankers' bonuses over £25,000 to be paid for by the bank and not the employee.
Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said that the union would liked to have seen more on skills and learning and more done to help small businesses gain access to lending.
More to follow
