Pre-Budget report at a glance

The main points of Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-Budget report:

Pensions

Single pensioners to get a rise of £5 a week next year, couples to get £8 a week

Pensions to rise in the following year by £3 for single pensioners and £4.80 for couples

Minimum income guarantee to rise to £92.15 a week by 2001, by 2003, it will be £100 a week

From 2003 minimum income guarantee will be raised in line with earnings

Pension credit to rise in line with earnings

Pension credit to be available to pensioner couples with an income below £200 a week and all single pensioners with an income below £135

The winter fuel allowance to rise to £200 for every pensioner household this year

Fuel and motoring

A freeze in duties on fuel until April 2002

2p-a-litre cut in excise duties on ultra-low sulphur petrol from Budget day 2001, to add to a 1p cut in tax on the fuel introduced on 1 October this year

Fund for scrapping or converting older lorries

New British disc to be placed on all foreign lorries using British roads

Abolish vehicle excise duty on tractors

Lower rate of vehicle excise duty extended on smaller cars from those under 1200cc to those up to 1500cc, giving five million drivers access to a £55 discount

Vehicle excise duty rate for lorries will be cut, giving the average lorry driver a saving of £715 a year

The 100 separate rates of vehicle excise duty for lorries to be replaced by seven bands

Economic forecasts

Budget surplus forecast at £16.6bn

Surplus to be used on debt repayment

Inflation is meeting its 2.5% target

Growth forecast at 3%

Manufacturing growth forecast at 1.5%

Net cash debt repayment this year would be £28bn

The national tax burden will not rise next year

Business and e-commerce

Consultations promised on abolishing withholding tax, and lower tax on company share holdings

Expand tax relief on share options to help e-commerce

Savings

Review all the capital limits on savings

ISA limit to rise to £7,000 for five years

Urban development

Stamp duty exemptions for properties in poorer communities

Proposals to reduce VAT on repairs to church buildings from 17.5% to 5%

Tax relief on cost of cleaning up contaminated land

Education and employment

New Deal to be extended to an additional 150,000 lone parents

Every head of a primary school will get between £4,000 and £7,000 and every secondary head will get between £10,000 and £30,000 to spend on their schools from a windfall levy of £200m