After 94 years as a Labour stronghold, the Nottinghamshire market town of Mansfield elected its first ever Conservative MP in last year’s general election. It was one of six constituencies to buck the national trend and swing to the Tories from Labour, ousting its longstanding MP, Alan Meale, who had been in situ since 1987.

The town – population 109,000 – was dominated by textiles and coal mining, and witnessed some of the most violent clashes of the miner’s strike. The 2011 census recorded Mansfield’s population as 97% white, and the town voted 71% to leave the EU in June 2016.

Key points from budget 2018 – at a glance Read more

According to the ONS, 4.7% of Mansfield’s population is unemployed, above the national average of 4.2%. The median gross weekly earnings for full-time workers was £454, compared with the national average of £569.

The Guardian asked locals what they thought of the measures announced in Philip Hammond’s budget.

James Bevan, director of Mansfield shoe repairs and locksmith

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Bevan: ‘Mental health services are massively underfunded’

The apprenticeship announcement has been a nice surprise. I took on the business nearly four years ago, and I worked here by myself for the first year. I employed my first apprentice in my second year and it was nothing but trouble. It took three months to get my first government payment through, which made me think twice about taking on another apprentice. I will take another one on next year, though, because I’m a 24-hour locksmith, so it’s useful not to have to close the shop if I get called out.

The announcement that meant the most to me on a personal level was the funding for mental health services. I lost my best friend in July due to suicide. I found it really tough and I am not shy to say that I suffered from depression for a couple of years. Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35 and mental health services are massively underfunded. That’s the best announcement that I’ve seen so far.

Karen Dainty, owner of Goldsmith Flowers

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Karen Dainty: ‘It is difficult at the moment because of the fall in the pound’

They put business rates up in 2017 and the high street was on its knees then, so I don’t know why they’ve decided to make the announcement about cutting rates for small businesses now.

My business is run very lean. It is difficult at the moment because of the fall in the value of the pound due to Brexit. All of our flowers come through Holland and prices are very high because of the exchange rate. I am worried about what will happen after Brexit because if there isn’t an agreement, and prices are impacted further, I simply won’t be able to afford to run my business.

The freeze on fuel duty is good because we do a lot of deliveries. But petrol and diesel prices have gone up a lot in the last six months and it would have been good if the government had done something to deal with that. Freezing fuel duty isn’t actually going to help my bottom line.

Andrew Redfern, chief executive, Framework housing association and charity

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Andrew Redfern: ‘Resources for the prevention of homelessness have basically disappeared’

We assist people who are homeless or at risk of being homeless and what we’ve found, over the past seven or eight years, is that resources for the prevention side of things have basically disappeared. We need resources – we need homes for people to move into and we need funding to support them.

On the face of it, these announcements don’t go far enough. There’s some assistance for mental health, a little bit of extra money for social care – although I suspect that won’t fill the gap that exists – but nothing specific around homelessness and rough sleeping, which has rocketed over the last few years. It has gone up by 169% between 2010 and 2017 nationally. In Mansfield, as in other areas, we have seen a big increase in rough sleeping. The last count was last autumn and there were around 28 people sleeping rough, and those will be people with quite high and complex support needs, like mental ill health or problems with drugs or alcohol. I would have liked to see a funded strategy to tackle rough sleeping.

Richard Heafield, cycle repair man at Route 6 cycle services

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Richard Heafield: ‘I would have liked to see more of a push for a green agenda’

I packed in my day job as an IT project and programme manager in February 2017 and set up Route 6 Cycle Services in a workshop at the bottom of my garden, fixing bikes. It’s a hobby that turned into a cottage industry and is now a little business. One thing that caught my ear in the budget was the £30bn for roads. I’m not disputing that roads need money spent on them – and the £420m for potholes will be welcomed by all cyclists – but I would have liked to see more of a push for the green agenda by spending on making roads safer for cyclists.

It’s good that he’s giving £10m to the Air Ambulance, though. As a mountain biker, I have several friends who have been helped by them after accidents in the Peak District.



Gev Lynott, chief executive, Mansfield Building Society

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Gev Lynott: ‘I am a big fan of anything that helps people get off the renting treadmill’

Our building society has four branches and we are fiercely proud of our independence, which we have maintained for nearly 150 years. The big thing for me in the budget was the announcement that all shared equity purchases of up to £500,000 are to be exempt from stamp duty. I am a big fan of anything that helps people get on the housing ladder and off the renting treadmill. We see so many customers who could afford to pay a mortgage but are stuck renting because they can’t afford a deposit. There was talk before the budget of giving some sort of incentive to landlords who sell to their tenants, which would have been good, but that seemed to have got lost.

I liked the increase in the personal tax allowance, but was surprised to see the increase in the threshold of the 40% tax rate to £50,000 — that seems a bit out of step with the more progressive regime we are supposed to be seeing. It will benefit me, but I think there is greater need among people at the lower end of the scale. The increase in the National Living Wage to £8.21 in April 2019 is good, though.

I liked the cut in business rates for retail properties with a rateable value below £51,000; it is so important that our town centres don’t turn into ghettos full of betting shops and charity shops.

Maria Carr, supervisor at the White Swan pub

I don’t understand why Philip Hammond has frozen duty on beer and cider and spirits but not wine [duty on most wine and higher-strength sparkling cider will rise by RPI inflation from 1 February 2019]. I like my wine and so do many of our customers, particularly women. This is a tax on the working woman. The increase in the personal allowance is good, but why should the people at the top get a tax cut too? I work just as hard as them.