'Good for some, bad for others' - the verdict is in on Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement
Millions to pay more in tax, a hike in energy bills in April and the average family far worse off - in a country now officially in recession.
But some better news in today's Autumn Statement for pensioners and workers on minimum wage.
Almost everyone will be impacted by the Chancellor's mini-budget - designed, he told the House of Commons, to achieve stability, growth and to protect those with the lowest incomes.
Southampton's business owner Tracy Mclachlan says they're working to exist and are concerned about the future.
Watch Southampton's business owner Tracy Mclachlan speaking to ITV News Meridian.
She said: "We used to charge £25 for wash cut and blowdry, we put it up just by £3 but a lot of our customers we keep the same and they can't afford it.
"We're from the community, it's the people in the community they all just work hard like we do and they just wouldn't be able to afford it.
"But energy bills are already too expensive and set to rise next April, so the salon's adapted, and so have the clientele.
"I don't put my heating on now, I can't put my heating on, we keep our costs down by giving them blankets, if the clients are cold we give them blankets."
Watch Vikki Herbert, from Thackray Williams Solicitors, speaking to ITV News Meridian.
Vikki Herbert, from Thackray Williams Solicitors, said: "We've got a whole range of income earners, in the business and we're trying to support our staff as much as we possibly can, but when the top earners are getting squeezed through business costs, as well as our own taxes, then we've got less to be able to give to the rest of the staff to help out with their income squeeze."
Georgia Burgess, who works at a hair salon in Reading, said: "As someone who's not on a super high income, I think it should be that people that are earning more, are taxed more because it helps everyone out.
"It should be fair as a whole rather than just being that everyone gets taxed the same because we don't all earn the same and everyone needs to be able to live comfortably."
Watch Georgia Burgess, who works at a hair salon in Reading, speaking to ITV News Meridian.
Responding to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in the South East, Ian Ross, said: “Today’s Budget piles more pressure on the UK’s 5.5 million small businesses, their employees, and customers.
“While tackling inflation is essential, so are measures to create conditions for prosperity, growth and support enterprise. Today is a missed opportunity to avoid further economic slowdown.
“Small businesses, which account for more than 16 million jobs in the UK, were already facing an acute cost of doing business crisis through soaring costs, falling revenues, shrinking availability of affordable finance, and a rise in invoices being paid late.
“On top of all that, they now face even higher taxes, cuts to innovation, and a recipe for a longer and deeper recession."