Gordon Brown laid out his budget on March 16 and, as suspected in my pre-budget article of March 15, this is seen as no more than a pre-election political budget.

Mr Brown has provided some "sweeteners" and has particularly targeted pensioners, low-income working families, savers and first-time home buyers.

He has also postponed a rise in fuel duty until September.

But what has he really done and what will he have to do to make up for it in his next budget, should Labour win the General Election?

For pensioners, Mr Brown has increased pensions in line with inflation, free off-peak local bus travel for the over 60s and a one-off council tax refund of £200.

There appears to be little mention of what is going to happen with council tax in the future. This appears to be clearly a sweetener for pensioners to attract the "grey vote" from them.

The stamp duty threshold has doubled to £120,000 at the nil rate band which will be of benefit to first-time house- buyers.

This threshold should have increased earlier.

The inheritance tax rate band is to be increased to £300,000 over the next three years but there will still be millions of people who have been dragged into the net of death duties merely because their homes have increased in value.

Perhaps a better measure would be to exempt homes from inheritance tax.

Income tax and capital gains tax have been increased in line with inflation. In summary, there is in reality little being given away, merely these "sweeteners" leading up to the General Election.

However, I do believe there will be a bitter pill to follow.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies has stated that the Chancellor would need to make fresh tax increases worth at least £11 billion to pay for his spending plans and to get the public finances back on track.

Should Labour win the election, it will not be a question of whether or not taxes will increase, but which taxes will Mr Brown increase.

There was little in the budget for small business.

A return of 100% capital allowances for IT investment would have been welcome and would have promoted such investment.

Even an extension of the 50% rate would have helped but was not mentioned. Small business investment must be encouraged and is a key to the success of the economy.

Mr Brown has promised to reduce "red tape" for businesses but he has not said how he will do this.

At this time I understand there are about 900 draft EU laws in the pipeline. This, when Gunter Verheugen, the enterprise industry commissioner for the European Commission, has stated that the commission is ready to clamp down on over-regulation but member states must also reduce bureaucracy.

I certainly hope Mr Brown's promises become reality, particularly in relation to company law and VAT and it will certainly be interesting to see how the promise is achieved.

Businesses remain cynical as they have been promised bonfires of red tape in the past - but they do not appear to have been ignited.

From my point of view, and I believe from that of our business clients, the message I would give to Mr Brown is "thanks for nothing".

I believe this was nothing more than a political budget, attempting to win the vote of the "grey voter" in the short term.

And I believe there will be a bitter pill to swallow in the autumn, as we are virtually guaranteed to have to face tax increases of some kind to pay for Mr Brown's spending plans and to get public finances back on track.

Hopefully, he will not introduce any further "stealth taxes", such as, perhaps, capital gains tax on homes.