IT'S that time of year again when the Chancellor parades his battered old red briefcase in front of the waiting media and sets out the Government’s financial plans in the Budget. Stuart Arnold asks a selection of people from across the region what they would like to see.

SCHOOL HEADTEACHER

Dean Judson, head of Hurworth School and chair of the 11-19 executive group in Darlington

"The Government are hiding behind a new national funding formula in which everybody should get be getting everything equal. The problem is what they are actually divvying up in terms of the cake isn’t enough to sustain what we have currently got. Nationally everybody is getting a net cut to their budgets and the biggest impact will be on the non-teaching staff who provide extremely beneficial external support in terms of working with individuals and small groups of children to break down barriers to learning. That is your teaching assistants, school counsellors, behaviour support, the extras crucial to a child’s education that we are having to look at in terms of school budgets moving forward. I would say to Philip Hammond we need a bigger cake so that the slice that every school is getting is going to feed everybody."

NHS NURSE

Kevin Morley, an associate nurse practitioner from Durham who works with patients with long term conditions and provides support for district nurses working in the community and care homes. He is also a steward for the Northern region of the Royal College of Nursing.

"Our Government has consistently underfunded and under resourced all aspects of the NHS, meaning that staff are increasingly stretched and having to work harder and longer hours. Now that the pay freeze previously imposed has been scrapped I would hope that this Government listens to the nursing workforce and invests in them, as well as in our hospitals and community services. Staff morale is so low and some nurses have been going to food banks to help make ends meet on a day to day basis. I do worry that many of our nurses will find the pay and increasing work load unmanageable and thus decide to leave, which in turn will put a greater strain and more pressure on our struggling NHS trusts. We have the best health service in the world and the Chancellor needs to get behind it and support the service to its fullest potential."

ENGINEER

Penny Marshall, North-East regional director of the Institute of Civil Engineers.

"Investment in infrastructure must be a priority in the next budget period if the Government is to meet the goals of its Northern Powerhouse initiative. To boost the region’s economic resurgence, the Budget needs to include an increase in infrastructure investment, which will give Transport for the North the financial freedom to develop programmes that enhance network integration and connectivity, enable economic development and ensure that the region is ready for the arrival of HS2. The North-East is famous for having been the birthplace of the railways and the opportunities that our state of the art transport links presented back then ensured the region’s prosperity for a long time. But the region’s infrastructure is long-overdue for an upgrade. We are keen to embrace the opportunities presented by new and emerging technologies and this needs a more focused approach to financing the solution."

PUB OWNER

Walter Cook, vice chairman of Stockton Pubwatch, who has 50 years in the pub trade and has a number of freeholds

"Gordon Brown in his austerity plans put an annual increase on the duty we pay on beer and that has never come off. We have been lobbying for years to get it off or to be given a duty holiday. I have 17 pubs and clubs up and down the North-East and I speak to landlords and everybody is struggling beyond recognition. I have never known it be as tight as this. The Chancellor wants to give us something back instead of taking off us all the time. There is no money in the pub trade any more, it is all food led, and we pay through the nose for everything. A cut in duty is most essential and a price freeze on tax would be a considerable boost to the pub trade."

CHIEF EXECUTIVE, RENEWABLES

George Rafferty, chief executive of Durham-based NOF Energy

"The offshore renewables industry is currently enjoying a period of strong growth and wind farm developments planned in recent years are coming on line. This is creating jobs and opportunities for North-East businesses active in the supply chain. However, moving forward there has to be a strong commitment from the Government to increase its support of renewable energy beyond 2020 to ensure the North-East supply chain can continue to develop their operations. The Government can create a more encouraging environment for business to develop new technologies and enhance their operations to remain competitive in the market. This also creates opportunities to export skills and products to other parts of the world."

WORKING MOTHER

Donna Timmiss, a supply teacher from Newton Aycliffe, who is on a zero hours contract. She is married and has two children

"Things aren’t great financially, pay has stagnated in the public sector and it hasn’t kept up with inflation. I’m also being asked to work for lower than what should my daily rate should be. The supply agencies charge schools a lot of money and most of that goes to them and not to the teacher doing the job. There needs to be a crackdown somewhere and a fairer way of doing things. At the moment I’m juggling two or three jobs, I do some private tuition and work for an exam board during the summer, but we have to be very careful with our money. We have saved for Christmas, otherwise we would really struggle. A pay rise of more than one or two per cent would be helpful and some recognition of the work that we in the public sector do. We have a mortgage and I would be terrified if rates go up. We’re coping now, but I don’t know what would give as we are down to the bare bones. There is no slack and it makes me angry because I have worked all my life."

HOUSING CHIEF

Ian Wardle, chief executive of the housing group Thirteen, which has 34,000 houses across the region

"The Government has already announced another £2bn for affordable housing and we are seeing a big focus on house building along with more flexibility, such as affordable rent or shared ownership. We would like to see that funding boosted further. Infrastructure funding is also needed because transport is a big issue in the North and it would increase productivity [of workers], but also the capital investment would boost the local economy. If there are more jobs and people building things then people will want to rent and buy houses more. My other two asks would be investment in schools, skills and apprenticeships. Nationally there are a million extra people needed for construction. Training hasn’t kept pace and a lot of experienced people are retiring over the next few years. Universal Credit also needs to be sorted out, delays with it is having a massive impact on living standards. People need to be paid and we are seeing tenants relying on food parcels and goodwill. There are some people in real hardship and it is quite distressing. The policy is right, in terms of rolling benefits into one and equipping people to go back to work, but the way they are processing it is not good enough."