What was billed as a Budget of historic significance was always unlikely to be earth-shaking for most people's hard-pressed pockets.

What was billed as a Budget of historic significance was always unlikely to be earth-shaking for most people's hard-pressed pockets.

But by postponing (any further) tax rises for most of us, and hitting some expected targets in the form of high earners, smokers, drinkers and motorists, the Chancellor was able to give an otherwise dark Budget a light sprinkling of fairy dust.

Any gains will be small or spread thinly. For savers, the lifting of the ISA limit by £3000 in total, but only £1500 on a cash ISA, will mean a maximum extra tax saving of just £9 a year. The government says five million of the 18 million ISA holders subscribe to the maximum.

But at least four million people are expected to ditch their ISAs this year, because savings rates are so low. Even the maximum £9 windfall will not be available to the under-50s until next financial year - well after the 2% rises in excise duties have hit home.

The Chancellor decided not to make ISAs more flexible, by increasing the cash limit, allowing equity investments to be switched to cash, or allowing top-ups as well as withdrawals.

Investors could now in theory use the bigger allowance to offset more capital gains in future, but most are already nursing losses from the bear market.

The big attraction of equity ISAs was the dividend tax credit - which Mr Brown withdrew in 2004. Meanwhile many retired people have suffered a collapse in their savings or investment income.

Another winter fuel handout, and a minimum 2.5% rise in the state pension, sound generous against zero inflation. But research from Alliance Trust this week showed the over-65s were still suffering 3.9% inflation last month, and for the over-75s it was 4.6% - over 50% higher than the official headline rate.

One group of winners will be those pensioners on means-tested benefits who have saved for retirement, but find any savings above £6000 effectively taxed at 40%, in reducing their benefits. They are now allowed £10,000, that's worth an extra £4 a week to 540,000 claimants, or one in 20 of the retired population. But there is no change in the bizarre Treasury assumption that pensioners' savings above that level are somehow producing an income of 10.4%.

A campaign to alert pensioners who may have failed to reclaim tax rebates on their savings over the past six years, targeting pension credit recipients, is welcome, if another demonstration of the government's "pay now, reclaim later" regime.

Members of struggling final-salary pension schemes might have hoped for a promise to help improve funding levels, through initiatives in the gilt market. But on this long-term pensions issue, the Chancellor was silent.

The Prime Minister's murmurings last week about tax relief on pensions turn out to have been directed at those on incomes (not salaries) of £150,000, for whom a pension contribution of £100,000 will now cost £80,000 instead of £60,000. It is the same target group who will now see a 50% tax rate and a reduced personal allowance.

Ingenious rules will prevent "new" contributions of more than £20,000 into a pension between now and 2011, when the allowances are reset. Higher earners might well complain that complex rules apparently set in stone only four years ago, designed to prevent tax abuse by setting annual and lifetime contribution limits, have already been rewritten.

One advisory firm claims that "lone breadwinners" may now be hurt most by the rich-soaking exercise, rather than "the super-wealthy who are likely to be able to continue to manage their affairs to mitigate the impact". Another warns that the already hard-hit financial and professional sector, important to the Scottish economy, will be bruised, as will be many self-employed. For those, however, there is a welcome easing of rules on claiming recent losses against tax.

For anyone eyeing a first-time home, the extension of the stamp-duty holiday on lower-priced properties provides a glimmer of encouragement - but they need a mortgage first. The Chancellor's promise of an asset-backed securities guarantee scheme is, according to the industry, the only initiative that might help.

The two happiest industry bodies last night were in different parts of the economy. The investment trust industry was delighted that its funds, staple of Scottish investors, would soon be able to invest efficiently in bonds as well as shares. The credit unions' association warmly welcomed a funding increase, which it said would enable 85,000 more affordable loans to be made to low earners over the next two years.