Setting out his £20bn fiscal stimulus the Chancellor promised to monitor lending practices to small businesses, while providing them with the opportunity to restructure tax bills on a timetable they can afford.

Also included in the speech were proposals for a temporary increase in threshold for empty property relief for small businesses and the postponement of the proposed 1% increase in Corporation Tax.

Overall government borrowing will rise to £118bn next year and it will not be until 2016 that the government can bring back borrowing to invest.

Posting on PrintWeek’s live pre-Budget update, Mark Nelson, a director at Compass Business Finance, said: "Alistair Darling is highlighting the reduction in interest rates, which has benefited some consumers via a reduction in mortgage payments, however, this is not benefiting the small- to medium-size businesses that are having their overdrafts cut and their interest rates increased."

Paul Holohan, chief executive, Richmond Capital Partners: "Reduction of VAT from 17.5% to 15%: impact on the printing industry is likely to be marginal."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne accused Darling of bringing the country to the verge of bankruptcy by taking on too much debt.

For more see this week’s PrintWeek.