WITH possibly just weeks before a general election, the reaction of Kent MPs and others to Gordon Brown’s budget proved entirely predictable.

Tory leader Michael Howard, the Folkestone and Hythe MP, dismissed it as a “vote now, pay later” budget that would see taxes go up if Labour won the general election to plug a financial black hole.

Everyone could see the Chancellor’s “sweeteners”, but these hid tax rises for hard working families, he added.

Chatham and Aylesford Labour MP Jonathan Shaw, however, hailed it as “fantastic,” insisting it delivered a “major boost for pensioners” with cuts in council tax and free bus travel.

But Ashford Conservative MP Damian Green said Gordon Brown had delivered a budget “for the next five weeks, not five years.”

He said the prospect of free bus travel would be “pointless” for many pensioners in Kent.

“In large parts of my constituency and other parts of Kent there aren’t any buses so it is completely pointless. And if it turns out that Kent County Council will be subsidising it, then the council taxpayer will be hit,” he said.

The trend of over-regulation and higher taxes would, in the long term, hit many of the county’s small businesses.

Gillingham MP Paul Clark rejected claims that the £200 discount to pensioners on their council tax bills was a short-term sweetener ahead of the election.

“People said the winter fuel allowance was a one-off but we have kept it because we regonise that pensioners have particular needs. We are well aware the council tax cannot remain in its present form and I believe it [the discount] will be kept at the next budget,” he said.

Thanet North MP Roger Gales was dismissive. “Of course there were some expected pre-election sweeteners and any assistance at all for, particularly, pensioners has go to be welcome but there are no long-term measures designed to repair the damage wrought by eight years of tax-and-waste,” he said.

Meanwhile, business leaders in the county dismissed the Budget as an electioneering exercise with little in it for them.

Mr Brown might have pleased pensioners, the low paid and "hard-working families" with a raft of goodies but he did not find much gratitude among Kent business people.

Mike Lazenby, chief executive of Kent Reliance Building Society, said it was a "mediocre" Budget.

"This is more of a political budget and less of a financial budget," he said. He took Mr Brown to task for claiming that every family was better off under Labour.

"Compared with nine years ago, relatively speaking, we’re spending £5,000 more a year on tax or indirect tax than we were so every family is not better off. It’s smoke and mirrors."

Mr Lazenby said the decision to double the stamp duty threshold to £120,000 was completely inadequate. In Kent, 49 out of 50 first-time buyers paid stamp duty. With the changes, over half would still pay pay stamp duty.

A studio flat in Sevenoaks or Tunbridge Wells cost £158,000. "Most people are not going to benefit. He should have put it up to £250,000 and then real people could have benefited. "

The Chancellor was "raking it in." "He has loads of money to play with and he’s focused on things that will buy him votes without costing much money."

"It may be enough to grab a headline but is it enough to help people really in need like first-time buyers."

Mr Brown had proved a good Chancellor and done an excellent job. "But it’s not without a cost and that cost is paid for by everyone who pays tax."

Vertex Law, the commercial firm based in Kings Hill, West Malling, hosted a sandwich lunch for local business people, with a televised Gordon Brown on the menu.

Margaret Connolly, tax partner with Reeves and Neylan, an accounting firm with offices in Chatham Maritime and Canterbury, said there was nothing for Middle England.

Desmond High, a consultant with EMC Corporate Finance, Turkey Mill, Maidstone, said he wanted to see the detail but on first glance, it was a disappointing Budget. "From a business point of view, it was a waste of time," he said.

Nick Evans, director of Maidstone-based legal solutions company Outset, said: "It was a rousing speech to the troops in the House of Commons and elsewhere."

"He made a big play of stamp duty, but in the South East, what does £120,000 buy you? "If you’re looking at attraxcting key workers, you’re not going to attraxct them to Kent unless you do a lot more to provide affordable housing."