NATIONAL organisations with strong rural links came out with a cool response to yesterday’s crisis Budget by Chancellor Alistair Darling.

The Federation for Small Business, which has some 200,000 members, was saddened that business rate relief had not been extended to rural businesses and added: "In what has been the most crucial budget in decades, the FSB is disappointed that small businesses have been largely ignored.”

The Campaign to Protect Rural England described the Budget as being “green round the edges” and insisted:” Much more ambition will be needed to deliver the green economy of the future.”

And one of the Governments’s most outspoken critics, the TaxPayers’ Alliance pulled no punches in lambasting the Chancellor: ““This Budget commits taxpayers to a terrifying amount of debt that will burden ordinary families for decades to come.

“The Government’s proposals are totally inadequate to deal with the size of the crisis we face. £15 billion of efficiency savings are a welcome start, but they are dwarfed by the debt mountain that the Chancellor plans to run up.”