A NUMBER of measures were being widely touted before chancellor George Osborne’s budget today. They included rises in personal tax allowance; further pension reforms; and a cut in inheritance tax.

Also being touted was a 20p an hour rise in the national minimum wage – and a 57p an hour rise in the hourly rate paid to apprentices.

That latter we would particularly welcome. Making apprenticeships more attractive is simple common sense. If we are to continue to grow and thrive as an economy, we need not only graduates, but also people with good, practical skills.

Paying apprentices more would seem the best way to achieve that; we would hope businesses would recognise it as a prudent investment in the future.

There is always a danger, at a pre-election budget, that a chancellor will see it as an opportunity to win votes. We hope Mr Osborne manages to resist short-term giveaways that we will have to pay for later. We all know that austerity is not yet over, and that there is more pain to come.

Local businesses have, however, come up with their own shopping list of things they would like to see. These include permanently fixing the amount of capital investment in things such as machinery that businesses can write off against tax at £500,000; reforming business rates; simplifying the red tape associated with tax; and making it easier for small businesses to bid for government projects.

We will find out today how much heed Mr Osborne has paid to such advice. But what we hope most of all is that he manages to resist playing politics with the nation’s finances.