WAS anybody able to cheer when Chancellor George Osborne sat down at the end of an Autumn Statement which promised several more years of austerity as Britain’s debts continue to rise?

Motorists have been spared the promised 3p per litre rise in fuel duty due to take effect next month, and millionaires will avoid the hated mansion tax for the moment.

But the grim message is austerity for years ahead, despite an extra £77m for HM Revenue and Customs to hunt tax dodgers. Would-be tax inspectors, at least, are in clover – there are vacancies for another 2,500 of them!

If anybody can seriously be regarded as ’winners’ from this latest package, it might be a canny, careful 50-plus couple living comfortably within their income and beginning to think seriously about retirement.

During their careers, they have regularly used annual ISA allowances to build up savings inside a tax-free shelter, either held in cash with banks or building societies, or in equities through managed funds.

The problem with ISA savings pots, however, is that they are not boosted by employers’ monthly contributions – still the big single argument for pensions.

Low-paid workers also get a decent boost with the raising of the basic rate income tax threshold by £235 to £9,440.

The threshold for 40 per cent tax rises by one per cent in 2014 and 2015, to £41,786 and £42,285.

One other group may fancy its chances after Mr Osborne’s package. That is the army of small investors who believe they have the knack of spotting tiny companies likely to soar in value. They might be looking for the next Asos, the online retailer whose shares have rocketed to £20-plus in recent years.

These investors may be dreaming of huge tax-free profits garnered from this ability to pick winners, thanks to the promised consultation suggested by Mr Osborne which could eventually enable shares in more than 1,000 companies on the Alternative Investment Market (Aim) to be held within an ISA.

About 20 million people in the UK hold ISAs and the block on Aim shares has been justified by the need to protect savers from heavy losses when fledgling companies founder.

Investors can still switch cash ISAs into equities, and many may be tempted to do so when they realise how drastically banks and building societies are cutting rates when existing accounts mature.

The big beneficiaries from this Autumn Statement could be those who take drawdown pensions, because they refuse to accept the current, pitifully low level of annuities.

A 65-year-old man with a £100,000 drawdown fund would be offered a maximum income of £5,300 per year under a rule which says drawdown income cannot exceed 100 per cent of the income paid by an annuity on the same-sized pot of money.

This limit is set by the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD).

After a furious campaign, Mr Osborne is raising this limit to 120 per cent from a date yet to be set: it means a drawdown pensioner will be entitled to receive £6,360 by the same drawdown arrangement, on retiring at 65.

For a woman of the same age, the maximum income drawdown could rise from £4,900 a year to £5,880.

Many people saving within company pension schemes may now also take the drawdown route, instead of buying an annuity.

However, Donna Hopton of financial advice service cherryfind.co.uk said: ‘‘Let’s be clear. The change announced to drawdown income limits does nothing whatsoever to fundamentally improve the lot of hard-pressed pensioners.

‘‘It merely reinstates the situation that applied to existing drawdown policyholders until earlier this year when their five-yearly GAD limit reviews cut maximum income from 120 per cent to 100 per cent.

‘‘As these reviews re-fix maximum income limits for the coming three years, a valid question is, ‘when will revised limits be applied to retirement income?’ It could be another three years before this change kicks in!

‘‘The sad reality is this relaxation of rules may already be too late for the many pensioners whose incomes have been slashed by a combination of virtually zero interest rates, quantitative easing and appalling annuity rates.’’ While the well-flagged cut in annual pension allowance from £50,000 to £40,000 attracted criticism, only high fliers are likely to be hit.

But is gloom over our finances all-pervasive and perhaps too powerful?

Ignoring this Autumn Statement, I have just tucked an ISA lump sum into Black Rock’s new North American Income Fund, which suggests an annual four per cent yield with a bit of financial wizardry, and will maintain £100- per-month direct debits into both Old Mutual Smaller Companies and Artemis Special Situations funds (both UK-based) which brought me through stormy times in the Nineties and Noughties.

Keep saving, regularly and steadily – especially during periods when all logic says it is pointless.