Finance experts have dismissed chancellor George Osborne's Budget as a ‘missed opportunity' to intensify the localism agenda, pointing to another delay in the introduction of tax increment finance (TIF) as an example of the Treasury's limited ambition.

While consultant KPMG welcomed the chancellor's widely-trailed enterprise zones – council-led initiatives to kick-start local economic growth, which have been handed tax and planning powers – the auditors' claimed the Treasury's perceived need for ‘national prudence' had ‘eclipsed' the coalition's desire for localism.