Chancellor George Osborne's Budget this year gave relief to motorists and commuters, with the cancellation of the scheduled rise in fuel duty for this September and extra loans for season tickets.

He also confirmed the Government will press ahead with Lord Heseltine's ‘excellent idea of a single competitive pot of funding for local enterprise'.

This cash pot will support local transport schemes as well as wider infrastructure projects. Insiders suggest that figures in the ‘low billions' have been mooted however as opposed to the tens of billions Lord Heseltine recommended for the pot.

Mr Osborne claimed that the move to abolish fuel duty increases this autumn will leave petrol 13 pence cheaper than if the Government had not frozen the duty over the last two years.

The chancellor gave relief for commuters by promising to double to £10,000 the size of the loans employers can offer tax-free to pay for items such as transport season tickets.

The budget document also revealed that among the projects and programmes from the Government's top 40 priority investments is the devolution of responsibilities for rail, roads, local transport, flood management, as well as other policy areas to the devolved nations.

In his speech the chancellor said: ‘We're already supporting the largest programme of investment in our railways since Victorian times – and spending more on new roads than in a generation.'

However he avoided any action to bring more tolling on the UK road network and gave no relief to those in local government desperate for more road maintenance funding.

The Budget also confirmed that the Department for Transport budget for next years would be cut by 1%, leaving government transport spending foe 2013-14 at £21bn.

Mr Osborne also promised tax breaks for manufacturers of ultra low emissions vehicles, along with vehicle excise duty discounts for businesses for low emissions vehicles.