Small and medium-sized leisure businesses should find it easier to secure bank loans and funding, according to plans outlined by chancellor Alistair Darling in today's budget announcement.

The budget - the last by chancellor Alistair Darling before the expected general election in May - will see Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds make £94bn available in business loans.

Darling added that "at least half" of this will be made available to small and medium-sized firms.

The government will also create a new investment corporation - called UK Finance For Growth - to oversee a £4bn funding package designed to offer support for businesses and help them negotiate red tape.

Small and medium-sized leisure companies will also be able to tap into a £2.5bn 'pot of gold', which the government has made available for investing in key skills and training. This has been funded by the tax on bankers' bonuses, which raised a total of £2bn - double the original figure expected.

Adding to this the government will cut business rates for a year from October 2010. According to Darling, this will mean that around 345,000 small businesses will pay no tax at all.

Meanwhile, the hospitality sector will have to deal with continued rises in alcohol duty - tax on beer, wine and spirits will increase by 2 per cent on Sunday 4 April.

In addition to this, pubs will no doubt be particularly unhappy with Darling's announcement that the tax on cider will be increased by 10 per cent from 4 April.

Reacting to the news Neil Robertson, chief executive of British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), said: "BII is disappointed that the Chancellor has gone ahead with the duty escalator. Yet again, he's ignored pleas from the industry to reverse the duty rises and 'leave us alone'.

"I find this somewhat jarring in the context of John Healey’s 12 step action plan full of supportive measures for community pubs. It seems the Government is determined to give us support with one hand and then take it away with the other. ‘The Government giveth and the Government taketh away!'.

"All that said, we do give a cautious welcome to the measures announced in support of small businesses. We will now study the detail to see how many of the small businesses in our industry will benefit."

Measures that have an effect on staff include the government's plans to extend the youth employment guarantee until March 2012, meaning that anyone under 24 will be offered a job or training after they have been unemployed for more than six months.

There is also help for older workers. The number of hours that workers over the age of 60 need to work to qualify for working tax credits will be cut.

Darling also confirmed that the government is looking into scrapping the compulsory retirement age.

The emphasis of the budget was heavily on ensuring that the tentative growth in the UK economy isn't endangered.

He outlined the government's task ahead as being to bring down borrowing and to achieving the target of halving the UK economy's deficit within the next four years.

He said: "The challenge is this; how do we invest in our future, while cutting back costs but without endangering our industrial future."

Reacting to the announcement of more business loans being made available, David Grant, head of UK business mortgages at Christie Finance, said: "Although many will feel this agreement is long overdue, we welcome this new lending commitment from the banks and hope that it will help end the inertia that has plagued the market over the last two years or so.

"With interest rates at an all time low, and a good supply of new businesses coming onto the market, affordability is starting to drive demand across the licensed, hospitality, care and retail sectors."