Many thanks for all your help guys
Went with the following option 3 for those that are interested:-
DECLARE @newseq AS float UPDATE NextId SET @newseq = iNextNo = iNextNo + 1 WHERE cdbfname = 'JOBNO' SELECT @newseq
The command above increases my field and puts the result into a local variable, I can then query the variable Voila
The main point here being that the update increase my field value and puts the result in a global variable in one move so to speak. Sweet.
This works fine for me :)