Budget at-a-glance

Budget at-a-glance

Taxes

Beer up 1p

Wine up 4p a bottle

Cider and sparkling wine tax frozen

Spirits tax frozen

8p on a packet of cigarettes

Bingo tax to be abolished on 4 August

Income tax stays the same

Inheritance tax - threshold up to £255,000

Stamp duty frozen and a crackdown on stamp duty tax evasion

Vehicle excise duty goes up by £5 on cars in May but stays on hold for lorries and motorbikes

Bio-ethanol duty to be cut by 20p in January 2005

The 1.28p a litre rise in revalorisation of fuel duties deferred until October

Iraq

£3bn extra funds set aside for the UK military in the wake of the war with Iraq

An extra £330m for additional domestic counter-terrorism measures

Humanitarian aid in Iraq will get £240m

Pledge to work for the reform of the European aid budget

The economy

Gordon Brown said the UK had enjoyed its longest period of sustained growth in 50 years

Britain had its lowest inflation for 30 years

Mr Brown said the target for the financial year for inflation was 2.5%

The growth forecast for 2003-4 is 2-2.5%

Fixed investment expected to grow by 4.25% to 4.75% this year

Domestic demand expected to grow by 3% to 3.5% this year

2004-5 growth expected to rise to between 3% and 3.5%

Employment

25,000 more doctors, 88,000 more nurses by 2008, funded by the National Insurance increase

Britain's unemployment is lower than the total in Japan and Eurozone and the lowest in the UK for a generation

Measures to tackle unemployment

Jobcentres to get discretionary powers so they can adapt to the demands of their locality

From next April, new housing benefit rules for people taking up jobs

Unemployment benefit claimants to sign on weekly instead of fortnightly

Young offenders will be offered training while detained and jobs on release in return for good behaviour

Government will make £170m to help people to upgrade their skills and move up the employment ladder

Where there are skills shortages new measures will be introduced to attract people from abroad with the appropriate training

Lone parents looking for work to get an extra £20 a week to help with their job search

Measures for business

Tax relief for smaller firms including £56,000 VAT tax threshold

Corporation tax was frozen by the chancellor

IT investment allowances will be extended to include a total of 3m businesses

A raft of regulation and redundant restrictions would be scrapped in consultation with business organisations

Government borrowing

£32bn surplus forecast over the economic cycle

Net borrowing to be £27bn this year

UK within the Maastricht criteria for borrowing and an assessment for the five economic tests for euro-entry would be published in June

Child poverty

Every child born from today will get a child trust fund worth £500 for the poorest children

Parents and grandparents will be able to contribute to the trust funds

The UK is on track to meet the government's target for a 25% cut in child poverty

Mr Brown said that economic strength and social justice were met when parents could balance work and family life

Pensioners

Pension reduction during hospital stays abolished from today

An extra annual payment of £100 to pensioners over 80, on top of the existing £200 winter fuel payment.

All single pensioners with income below £139 a week and all couples below £203 a week will benefit from new Pension Credit.