Alistair Darling proudly boasted in his Budget speech that “the Government is committed to encouraging more people to save”, but there was precious little sign of any such encouragement in the measures he announced on Wednesday.

Instead, he has produced a ragbag of ideas from his battered Budget box. They include a couple of reheated, pre-announced measures, which he has not improved upon, a modest proposal for low-income savers, which has yet to be fleshed out, and a titbit that will be of value only to very high-net-worth individuals.

The 17 million people who have tucked away money in Isas were disappointed to learn that the Chancellor is not planning to increase the annual Isa allowances beyond what was announced in last year's Budget.

This means that from April 6 the maximum amount that can be invested annually in an Isa rises by a mere £200 to £7,200. Within that overall limit, the amount that can be placed in a cash Isa rises by only £600 to £3,600.

Jason Hollands, of F&C, the investment house, says: “This is a pretty disappointing result, given that the amount has not changed since the scheme was introduced in 1999.”

Alliance Trust, the investment group, points out that if the original £7,000 Isa allowance had been linked to inflation since 1999, it would now stand at £7,938. If it had been linked to average earnings, it would be a hefty £9,726.

Those who had hoped for changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime unveiled in October have been similarly disappointed. However, Jason Evans, of Kohn Cougar, the independent adviser, says that there is a little-known way that married couples can preserve the valuable indexation allowance on investments, which the Chancellor is removing from April 6. “Spouses who transfer investments to each other before April 6 will be able to preserve indexation relief thanks to the special rules that apply to transfers between spouses or those in civil partnerhips,” he says.

One unintended consequence of Mr Darling's changes to the CGT regime is that it has dealt a heavy blow to insurance bonds. These products are life insurance policies that typically offer a range of investment funds within the bond wrapper.

With income tax of 20 per cent charged on the funds within the wrapper and a further tax charge of up to 20 per cent when the investment is cashed in, the product stacked up fairly well against directly held unit and investment trusts, which faced CGT of up to 40 per cent when sold. But the product looks much less attractive now that the top rate of CGT has been cut to 18 per cent. Although some industry experts claim that insurance bonds will still be appropriate for some investors, Mike Warburton, of Grant Thornton, the accountant, says: “Insurance bonds are likely to become progressively less attractive and slowly wither on the vine.”

Mr Darling announced an ambitious plan to help low-income savers through his Gateway Saving scheme (see facing page), but financial experts have cast doubts on its viability and gave warning that the details, which have yet to be decided, will need to be made genuinely attractive if it is to meet the Chancellor's ambitious targets of pulling in millions of low-income savers.

The one bright spot for savers, though they will need to be fairly wealthy savers, is the increase from £400,000 to £500,000 in the amount that can be invested annually in enterprise investment schemes (EISs). These schemes allow you to invest in a small company and enjoy upfront income tax relief of 20 per cent if you hold the investment for at least three years. In addition, you pay no income tax on dividends and no CGT when you cash in your investment.

It should, however, be pointed out that these are very risky investments .

Case Study: Disappointed by Isa limit

David Ward is one of the many millions of Isa investors who felt that the Chancellor could have done more to boost the attractions of this form of tax-efficient saving.

The 35-year-old company executive, who lives in Carlisle with his wife and two children, says: “You would hope that the Government would give greater incentives to save. But the rise in the annual Isa investment limit from £7,000 to £7,200 is hardly going to set the world on fire.”

Mr Ward has a total of about £80,000 invested in a combination of Isas and personal equity plans (Peps), the forerunner to Isas, and says: “It is quite disappointing that the investment limit remains so low. I think that it should be raised to at least £10,000. In these uncertain times I would have thought that the Chancellor would be doing more to encourage investors.”

Gateway plan not an open-and-shut case

The arrival of the Government's Saving Gateway scheme was announced with a big fanfare, with the Chancellor making bold claims about the potential impact of the scheme, which is designed to encourage those on modest incomes to acquire the savings habit.

However, savings organisations, while welcoming the idea, have cast doubts on the scheme's chances of success and given warning that Alistair Darling will have to make the terms of the deal extremely attractive if he is to have any hope of pulling in the numbers he is hoping to attract.

The Saving Gateway will be rolled out nationally in 2010, after two earlier trials several years ago, and he claimed that, by promising to add a substantial bonus to what individuals had saved, the Government could attract as many as eight million people on lower incomes.

Individual savers will sign up to save a monthly amount for two years with a bank or building society, at the end of which the Government will provide an additional contribution on top.

The Government has not decided whether to set its contribution at 20 per cent, 50 per cent or 100 per cent of an individual's savings. However, it has indicated that it will only make contributions on a set limit of about £25 a month.

Rachel Le Brocq, of the Building Societies Association, says: “We would like to see the Government's contribution set at a generous level, ideally 100 per cent, and we would also like the monthly savings limit to be lifted to make the scheme more attractive. Finally, we think that the scheme should be extended to allow as many people as possible to participate. At the moment only those on benefits or tax credits will be allowed to take part.”

Tom McPhail, of Hargreaves Lansdown, the independent financial adviser, adds: “The basic idea behind the scheme is not a bad one, but there is one glaring problem that could hamper its success. It is going to be launched only two years before the introduction of personal accounts, the pension scheme aimed at people on modest incomes. There is going to be a considerable overlap between the two target groups, and because these people are likely to have only marginal amounts to save, they probably won't have enough to put into both pots.”