What do people in the South want from the Budget?

What are people in the South hoping for from the Budget?

Chancellor John Healey is getting ready to unveil his first budget on Wednesday.

For small businesses squeezed by soaring fuel prices, and first-time buyers trying to get onto the housing ladder, a great deal depends on it.

The Treasury said the chancellor was already "giving the high street more breathing space", including through cuts to business rates.

Diana Logan-Watts, who runs the MS centre in Dorset, said rising fuel costs were putting it under strain

Diana Logan-Watts manages MS Centre Dorset, which uses five specially adapted minibuses to collect people from their homes.

She said operating them now costs more than £2,000 extra compared with last year.

"If we didn't run the buses in this way then these people would have no way of getting here at all," she said.

"We've got to make some really tough choices and we don't like doing that, we certainly don't like passing our costs on to our members."

She said that, ideally, the chancellor would "knock duty off fuel".

Earlier this month, the RAC said diesel prices in the UK had hit a record high.

Meg Hunter, who runs a family florist in Winchester, said fuel prices were "just ridiculous"

Meg Hunter runs an independent family florist in Winchester and delivers flowers across the region.

She cannot afford a shop, so her van is essential to the business, and she says fuel costs are "just ridiculous".

"We've absorbed it up to now, but our suppliers have started charging a higher fuel contribution, and we are going to have to start including that in our costs too," she said.

"They just need to help us. It's impossible for us to keep going."

Painter and decorator Antony Parsons said fuel costs meant "the margins we had are not there anymore"

Antony Parsons runs a painting and decorating business in Alton, Hampshire.

He quotes jobs three to six months ahead, but said fuel prices were climbing so quickly that "the margins we had are not there anymore".

"A lot of our guys travel so we are losing money whatever we do," he said.

He wants the chancellor to cut fuel duty and keep the temporary 5p cut, which is due to end at the end of the year.

"I'm seriously thinking about giving up," he said. "It's just not worth it."

Paul, a driving instructor in Oxfordshire, said he could cover a couple of hundred miles a day taking learners to tests in places like Swindon and Banbury.

He said his fuel bills had jumped from about £30 to about £60 in just a few weeks.

"It's a big problem. We use a lot of fuel... the prices are affecting the bottom line," he said.

"I don't doubt the government needs revenue... but I think there's a review perhaps due of how we use this money."

Three purchases have collapsed for Phoebe Jupp and her partner

Phoebe Jupp and her partner Kai have spent 16 months trying to buy their first home near Portsmouth, and three purchases have fallen through.

They are living in her mother's bedroom, while her mother sleeps on a sofa-chair in the lounge.

"We've had stress and hassle the whole way through. We're just fed up," she said.

Each failed purchase has cost them survey and solicitors' fees, and they are now using part of their deposit.

She wants a scheme like Scotland's, where sellers pay for the survey: "Then we'd know what we were buying."

The first valuation on Rebecca Guest's apartment was £60k higher than the price it eventually sold for

Rebecca Guest is selling her one-bedroom flat in Newbury so she can move to the North East, where she hopes to be mortgage-free one day.

But the flat eventually sold for £60,000 less than its original valuation.

"It's a buyers' market, all around this area there are for sale signs," she said. "I feel absolutely heartbroken that I've lost most of the capital I've put into the flat."

She wants the government to do more to help first-time buyers get mortgages on all kinds of property, not just new builds.

Dan Channer believes confidence in the Budget will help bring momentum to the housing market

The chancellor is expected to confirm the Your First Home scheme, which allows people to buy a new-build home with a 2.5% deposit and a 20% equity loan. But most homes sold in the South are second-hand.

Dan Channer, chief executive of Jones Robinson estate agents in Newbury, said the market was "not as bad as people think", and that September was the firm's best month for sales in several years.

"There is pent-up demand, particularly from first-time buyers," he said.

He would like to see "positivity in the budget to stop people feeling fearful", including a change to stamp duty levels and incentives for older people to downsize.

Landlord Chris Smith from the George at Upton wants to see VAT cut for hospitality

Chris Smith, landlord of the Crown at Chilton and the George at Upton, both near Didcot in Oxfordshire, wants the chancellor to cut VAT for hospitality.

"The most sensible thing John Healey could do would be to reduce VAT to 10 per cent to give the industry a fighting chance," he said.

He said more than half a million people had signed a petition calling for the cut.

"It's time for every political party to understand what hospitality actually brings to our country before it's too late."

A Treasury spokesperson said the chancellor was cutting business rates by 20% for pubs, social clubs and live music venues, alongside £4.3bn to limit bill rises.

"As has always been the case, decisions on tax are a matter for the chancellor to set out at fiscal events," they added.

Healey previously told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I'm acutely concerned and conscious about how hard it is for families. I see that at the pumps myself."