Budget 2012: Osborne has "missed opportunity" on economy Published on Thursday 22 March 2012 14:08 THE First Minister has hit out at the Chancellor's Budget, saying it is a missed opporunity and will punish pensioners. Alex Salmond rounded on the Westminster coalition at First Minister's Questions, a day after George Osborne set out his spending plans at Westminster. Responding to SNP backbenchers, Mr Salmond said: "The Chancellor's Budget is a missed opportunity to get the economy moving to deliver greater fairness. The Budget allocated next to no meaningful new resources or contained any new initiatives to support growth in the economy. He also accused the Tories of lacking ambition by trying to "undo part of the damage" he argues was already inflicted on the North Sea oil and gas industry. "No doubt they'll blame the Liberal Democrats for last year, just as the Liberal Democrats will blame the Tories for the effect on the pensioners this year," he said. If that is the summit of the Tory ambition, then it's hardly surprising they've been reduced to the current poor position in Scottish politics. Mr Salmond said 330,000 current pensioners will be affected by decisions made by the Chancellor. By 2016-17 the impact will amount to £220 more on income tax, potentially affecting half a million pensioners. Addressing the Conservative benches, he added: "We've got to the stage where the Conservative Party in terms of their determination to pursue their own agenda are prepared to punish millions of pensioners across the UK - half a million pensioners in Scotland - reverse the policies of Winston Churchill and they wonder why next to nobody is voting for them?" Tory MSP Gavin Brown said the Scottish Government fails to give credit for other Budget decisions, such as a cut to corporation tax and an increase to personal tax allowances. "His answers today have completely ignored those two very important measures for Scotland," Mr Brown said. The First Minister also criticised possible changes to UK policy on regional public sector pay. Mr Osborne told MPs yesterday that he wants to make public sector pay more "responsive" to local pay rates. About 32,000 public sector workers in Scotland have their pay set by the UK Government. Mr Salmond said: "This move could penalise public servants, damage public services, increasing regional pay disparities and resulting in spending cuts to pay for higher public spending cuts elsewhere. This will do nothing to promote growth or fairness and I think the Chancellor should think again about this half-baked plan.