Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 March 2007, 13:23 GMT
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Point-by-point: Budget
The key points from Chancellor Gordon Brown's eleventh Budget:
Basic rate of income tax to fall from 22p to 20p from April next year.
Beer will rise by 1p a pint from midnight Sunday, cider by 1p a litre, wine by 5p a bottle and sparkling wine by 7p. Duty on spirits will be frozen.
Cigarettes to rise by 11p a packet. VAT on nicotine patches to be cut from 17.5% to 5%.
Road tax on highest-polluting vehicles up to £400 from April next year.
Fuel duty up 2p per litre, in line with inflation.
Top-rate income tax threshold will rise to £43,000 from April 2009.
Education spending in England will rise from £60bn this year to £74bn in 2010. From now to 2010 spending per pupil rise by a further 20 per cent, 10 per cent in real terms, to £6,600
Corporation tax will be cut from 30p to 28p from April next year.
Tax exemption for capital gains will rise from £8,800 to £9,200, and will be £18,400 for married couples.
Inheritance tax will rise from £285,000 now to £350,000 in 2010.
Child benefit, for a first child, will rise from £17.45 a week to £20 a week by 2010.
Tax-free allowance for pensioners under 75 will rise in three stages from £7,280 to £9,770 in 2011. For over-75s, the tax free allowance will rise annually from £7,420 to by £10,000 by 2011.
Grants of £300 to £4,000 for pensioners installing insulation and central heating in their homes.
Until 2012 all new zero carbon homes up to £500,000 will be exempt from stamp duty.
50,000 16 to 17-year-olds who sign activity and learning agreements will receive a training wage in return for gaining skills.
All the 125,000 people who lost their pensions because of company insolvency will get help with a financial assistance scheme increased from £2bn to £8bn.
Mr Brown said the British economy was growing faster than all the other G7 economies. Growth is stronger than the Euro area, Japan and America.
Inflation will be on target in 2008 and 2009, according to forecasts.
In the last year investment has grown by 6%, business investment by 7%, and inward investment by 10%. Business investment is forecast to rise again by more than 7% this year.
In the last year employment has risen, with 220,000 more men and women in work.
In 2008, Britain's growth will be the highest in the G7, between 2.5% and 3%.
The landfill tax will, rise by £8 each year from April 2008.
Britain's net borrowing, which in the early 1990s went as high as 8% of national income is this year just 2.7%. It will fall to 1.4% by 2012.
Asset sales will rise from £18bn to £36bn, with the sale of spectrum, a £6bn sale of the student loan book, and further financial and corporate sales at home and overseas.
Investment in schools, hospitals, security and defence and infrastructure will rise from £43bn this year to £60bn by 2012.
Total government spending will rise to £674bn by 2010/11.
An extra £400m to be allocated to the Ministry of Defence to cover overseas commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Investment in the NHS in England will rise by £8bn this year.
Public investment in science will rise from £5bn this year to £6.3bn by 2010-11.
Tax rate on small companies to be raised in three stages from 20p this year to 22p in 2009.
£50m for a 10-country initiative across central Africa to prevent the destruction of the second largest rain forest in the world.
£800m to the Environmental Transformation Fund, jointly run by the international development and environment secretaries.
The chancellor sat down at 1320 GMT
.