George Osborne has moved to neutralise two of the Government's biggest political headaches by ditching plans to slash tax credits and promising to protect police budgets from cuts.

PENSIONS will be raised by £3.35 per week Derek Iles, 80, from the Southend Older People’s Assembly: “It’s good that they are raising the pensions, every little helps.

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

Derek Iles

"I think a lot of members won’t have any objections to this at all.

“I spend around £2 every 24 hours just to keep my flat warm, even though I have a heating allowance, so extra money will help out.

“It is good as long as the Government doesn’t make cuts elsewhere, I wouldn’t put it past them to take away our bus passes to pay for this.

“I have a very cynical view of the budget.”

WILL SAVAGE

BILLIONS will be handed to private developers to build 200,000 new “starter homes”.

Will Savage, 26, Gainsborough Drive, Westcliff, is looking to get on property ladder He said: “I think it is a good idea, but it only applies to homes up to a value of £250,000, and a lot of homes in the area are more expensive than that.

“And will the new homes be built down here either?

“It’s very difficult to get on the property ladder owing to how expensive the property market is. We’ve been trying for years and haven’t got there, despite getting better jobs.

“In the end, we had to rent a house instead of buying one after moving out of a house share.”

BERNIE BENTLEY

THE Government announced a £600million boost for mental health services.

Mental health campaigner, Bernie Bentley, 50, from Wickford: “That sounds like an awful lot of money and I’d be interested to see how it will be carved up across the country, and how much Essex will get.

“There has been loads of services shut down because of funding cuts so will this money be used to bring back services in Essex like Mind that have had to cut back?

“Will this re-fund them?

“My group is branching out to Crowstone Church in Wickford as well as my current sessions in Wickford because there are not the services out there.

“We are self funded and provide a group for people to come and talk about mental health and improve their resilience to it.”

NICK ALSTON

Nick Alston, Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex Nick Alston, said: "I and others have been lobbying the Home Secretary hard in recent weeks with concerns over the levels of cuts to police funding we had been told to expect.

"I didn't doubt that the government would listen carefully to what PCCs and Chief Officers have been saying but I am delighted that it has responded by keeping the overall budget for policing at the present level through to 2020 and that it is giving some of us the freedom to lift the precept a little. I have strongly argued for this as it is crucial for us here in Essex.

Maldon and Burnham Standard: Nick's mountain to climb as boss of Essex Police

"The Chief Constable and I are not going to take any immediate decisions. We will need to see the detail of how Essex will be affected, which we won't know until mid December.

However in anticipation of the need to make tough savings we have worked hard to truly understand what matters to our communities: tackling the changing crime types that cause such dreadful harm; delivering much better and more modern ways for the public to contact the police; and providing the best possible response to emergencies among many other issues. We are determined to move quickly to address these important areas and we now have a new opportunity to do that.

I am also currently reviewing what the option to raise the precept by more than 2% might mean. I am likely to argue that any additional money raised through local tax is used specifically for local policing.

"In light of the announcement today I am aware that many people will be asking whether the current proposals to reduce the number of PCSOs employed by Essex Police will be reversed. The Chief Constable and I will take time for reflection before taking any decisions.”