Central to this support was the doubling of the annual investment allowance (AIA) to £500,000 from 1 April until the end of 2015, providing 100% up-front relief to 99.8% of all UK businesses on their qualifying investment in plant and machinery.

Another key announcement for printers and paper mills was on energy, where the chancellor unveiled a £7bn package of reforms designed to "radically reduce the costs of energy policy for business".

This includes a cap on the Carbon Price Support (CPS) rate at £18/tonne from 2016/17 to 2019/20 and the exemption of fuel used in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants from the Carbon Price Floor.

There will also be a new compensation scheme to help energy intensive industries with higher electricity costs resulting from the renewables obligation and small-scale feed in tariffs for renewable generation, from 2016/17.

Taken together these measures will not only provide greater predictability around energy costs but will also save a medium-sized manufacturer around £50,000 a year in 2018/19.

Kathy Woodward, chief executive of the BPIF, said: "The support for business within the budget shows an understanding of the need to give a clear forward commitment to encourage continued investment in manufacturing in the UK.

"Prior to the budget there was a real threat that uncertainty over energy and investment support would deter pan European operations from developing new facilities in the UK; hopefully the comprehensive basket of measures will restore confidence in the commitment to UK manufacturing and supply.

"The challenge is now for all sectors to maximise the opportunities and underpin what is still a fragile recovery."

Phil Orford, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business (FPB), said: "The headlines for business are on energy policies and export. There are sizeable gains for UK manufacturers here in particular over the next few years.

"This was a budget that offers some help to all levels of business, with perhaps a slight focus on the mid-sized energy intensive and manufacturing businesses, rather than the very small ones.

"However, it does help to tackle the cost of energy and makes good on the commitment trailed before the Budget to support those that look to invest, either in the UK – with a more extensive Annual Investment Allowance – or abroad, with a £3bn export support budget.

"Overall, the Budget, combined with the more cost measures to help small businesses announced in the Autumn Statement, sent out a positive message to invest and grow in the year ahead."

However, support for the CPS cap was not universal. Dave Broadway, managing director of CFH Docmail, said that in contrast to the "welcome doubling of the annual investment allowance" freezing the carbon tax was "much less welcome to our business".

Broadway argued that capping the CPS was "only possible because support for renewable energy is being reduced".

He added: "If energy supply was sufficient, and forecast to be sufficient for the future, then energy prices would be lower. High energy users are already suffering “brown outs” and being required to shut down at certain high load times because supply is insufficient to meet demand.

"This will get worse and see ordinary users affected when certain coal-fired plants are required to shut down in 2015. Short-termism by successive governments mean that we have nothing in place to replace that load.

"This government could have helped matters by continuing to support local distributed generation of electricity from solar, wind and gas CHP installations, which would have reduced the load on the central power stations. Instead they have continually cut subsidies since they came to power."

Other policies announced in the Budget 2014 included:

Exports

An overhaul of the UK Export Finance direct lending programme, doubling it to £3bn and cutting interest rates by a third, to the lowest permitted level; expand the remit of UKEF to support UK-based supply chains of exporters as well as intangible exporters; step up marketing of UKEF so more more businesses are aware of its products and services.

FPB chief executive Phil Orford said: "Driving awareness of UKTI and UKEF is as important as increasing the availability of finance and the commitment to increase marketing of UKEF’s products and services is welcome.

Apprentices

An extra £85m funding for the Apprenticeship Grants for Employers scheme in both 2014/15 and 2015/16, providing support for over 100,000 more apprentices; grants will be targeted where they are most effective.

Confederation of British Industry director general John Cridland: "Apprenticeships are a crucial tool in fighting skills shortages and youth unemployment, so this additional support is very welcome - especially for smaller firms wanting to do more. We still need to better demonstrate the benefits of apprenticeships to young people."

Roads and transport

Fuel duty frozen until Spring 2015; £200m fund available for local authorities to submit bids to repair roads damaged by potholes; £140m for repairing and improving flood defences.

Federation of Small Business (FSB) national chairman John Allan said: "Continuing to freeze fuel duty will be welcome to small firms still struggling with the cost of fuel at the pump. Half of FSB members say problems with the UK's road infrastructure costs their business up to £2,500 a year; a fifth say it has cost more. Recent flood damage has exacerbated the problem. The £200m fund to repair potholes shows the government is finally recognising the more prominent transport challenges for small firms and the importance of local roads to run and grow their business."

Enterprise Zones and SEIS

Support measures for businesses based in Enterprise Zones, including business rates relief and enhanced capital allowances, to be extended to 2017 and Northern Ireland to get its first Enterprise Zone; Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and capital gains tax 50% reinvestment relief to be made permanent.

Shalini Khemka, chief executive of entrepreneur network E2Exchange, said: "Making SEIS permanent is a positive step but we would still like to see further reforms of the scheme, primarily allowing a broader class of shares to be included under the scheme, widening the variety of sectors from which businesses are eligible and doubling the £150,000 limit that a company can raise under its rules."

SME access to finance

Consultation on legislation to help match SMEs who are turned down for a loan with alternative lenders; British Business Bank to issue a request for proposals to implement a wholesale guarantees programme alongside the budget.

Orford said: "The Forum of Private Business has already encouraged the Treasury to go further on opening up credit data to all lenders by creating portable bank account histories owned by the business. However, we are encouraged with moves to see banks forced to signpost businesses to alternative lenders if they are turned down. Peer to peer financing is a rapidly growing area of finance for small businesses and one that needs greater awareness."

R&D

R&D tax credit payable to loss-making SMEs to be increased from 11% to 14.5% from April 2014; provide £42m in funding over five years for the Alan Turing institute, which will undertake new research into ways of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data (Big Data); invest £74m over five years in a Graphene innovation centre and Cell Therapy manufacturing centre.