Brown draws election battle lines
Gordon Brown defends his Budget as the Tories claim it is a return to Labour being a "tax and spend party".

Deficit target set to be hit
Britain's public sector net borrowing reaches £30.9bn after eleven months, giving hope that the chancellor will meet his deficit target.

40,000 Whitehall jobs to be cut
Gordon Brown announces extra help for pensioners and schools but thousands of civil servants face the axe.

Clarke's Budget news for schools
The education secretary has set out details of the government's spending boost to education.

Chancellor shrugs off Budget gap
Gordon Brown claims credit for the buoyant state of the economy and says he will meet his fiscal rules despite the big deficit.

Brown moves to cool house prices
Chancellor Gordon Brown welcomes the findings of two key reports into the UK housing market in a bid to avert a price crash.

Smokers face further price rises
The price of a pack of cigarettes will rise by 9p, while duty on beer and wine will also increase, the chancellor says.

Chancellor to close tax loophole
A tax loophole which has enabled some small businesses to avoid paying tax and national insurance is closed.

Customs and Revenue merge
Customs and Excise will merge with the Inland Revenue, Chancellor Gordon Brown announces in his Budget speech.

Radical plan to shake up housing
Britain urgently needs to build 140,000 extra homes a year.

Where's the waste?
BBC economics editor Evan Davis looks for fat to cut.

Spending battle follows Budget
Sharp cutbacks in spending outside health and education are predicted after Mr Brown's forecast for public spending.

City questions Budget forecasts
Some City economists express cynicism and doubts over Gordon Brown's growth promises announced in the Budget.

Should Brown wield the axe?
How much can be saved by slashing costs in Whitehall?

Brown's child poverty challenge
Can the government reach its child poverty targets?

Tax takes centre stage
Labour lays the grounds for the next election.

All agree Budget is 'vote winner'
Wednesday's Budget speech brought consensus in the media that it was a successful political move.

Howard attacks Brown's Budget
Tories attack the "borrow- now tax-later Budget".

'Big decisions are being shelved'
Gordon Brown is avoiding taking key decisions until after the next election, say the Liberal Democrats.

Profile: The Iron Chancellor
The man most likely to succeed Tony Blair as PM.

Brown moves the goalposts
A leading accountant gives her verdict on the Budget.

Brown tackles 'hard-core' jobless
A raft of new measures to get more people off benefits and into work have been announced by the chancellor.

Your reaction to the Budget
Happy or unimpressed? Your first impressions on the Budget.

Brown's tax crackdown
The chancellor moves to stem the tide of tax avoidance schemes hitting the public purse.

What we already knew
A guide to what we already know about Budget 2004.

Firms hail listening chancellor
Big business backs Brown's red tape fight, but smaller firms feel left out.

Film-makers handed tax benefits
Chancellor Gordon Brown announces new tax relief plans for British film-makers to boost film funding.

Distillers' anger over tax plan
The Scotch whisky industry reacts with anger to the Chancellor's Budget move to put security stamps on every bottle.

Film-makers welcome relief
Film-makers welcome a tax credit scheme introduced in the Budget to help the British film industry.

Brown outlines science strategy
Gordon Brown plans to boost science and engineering investment over 10 years.

Minimum wage for under-18s
Patricia Hewitt says a new minimum wage of £3 for workers aged 16 to 18 years will be introduced.

£1.4m pensions cap to hit 10,000
Around 10,000 people may be affected by the government's plans to impose a cap of £1.4m on pensions savings, the National Audit Office reports.

Brown rejects fresh euro test
Gordon Brown rules out a further assessment of the five economic tests for Britain joining the euro until next year.

Cool response to pensioner cash
Treatment of pensioners under fire despite an extra £100 for the over-70s.

20,000 civil servants to relocate
Gordon Brown confirms thousands of civil servants are to be relocated out of London after a report suggested it would save £2bn.

Bookies hail internet bet review
High Street bookies welcome a review of taxes on internet betting exchanges.

Boost for medical research
The government is to fund new specialist research institutes to try to find cures for a range of diseases.

Delays hit lorry charges scheme
Plans to make lorry drivers pay by the mile could take up to five years longer to start than originally expected, it emerges.

Buy-to-let for everyone
A new investment that may make it easy to own your local shopping mall, cinema or even the office in which you work, could be on the way to the UK.

More money for education
Investment in education is one of the priorities for the future set out by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown.

Budget speech in full
The full text of Chancellor Gordon Brown's eighth Budget statement.