Here are the key points of Chancellor Gordon Brown's ninth Budget.
- Stamp duty thresholds doubled to £120,000
- Inheritance tax currently starts being paid on estates worth £260,000 - that will rise to £275,000 this year, £285,000 next year and then to £300,000
- Income tax and national insurance to remain unchanged
- Petrol duty inflation rise postponed until 1 September due to high oil prices
- Mr Brown said he would freeze: corporation tax, capital gains tax, air passenger tax, insurance premium tax, climate change levy, aggregates levy and company car levy
- Tax breaks on ISAs extended until 2010
- Personal income tax allowance to be raised in line with inflation
- The 100% VAT refund for renovations to religious buildings to be extended by three years.
Alcohol and cigarettes
- Duty up 1p on a pint of beer and 4p on a bottle of wine, but frozen on cider, sparkling wine and spirits.
- Tax on a packet of cigarettes to rise 7p.
- Pensioners to get a council tax refund of £200
- Free local bus travel for every pensioner from next year
- Pension credit to rise by 13% by 2008, in line with earnings.
- Mr Brown hailed the "longest period of economic growth since records began in 1701" in Britain.
- Inflation was now 1.6% and was expected to be 1.75% this year and 2% in 2006 and beyond
- Growth for 2004 was 3.1%, as forecast, and Mr Brown predicted the economy would grow by 3% to 3.5% this year and 2.5% to 3% next year.
- Inflation was the lowest for 30 years, interest rates the lowest for 35 years and employment the highest ever, said Mr Brown
- Borrowing was forecast at £34bn for 2004/5, £32bn for 2005/6 and £29bn for 2006/7.
- There will be new rules to encourage incapacity benefit claimants into work and changes to housing benefit to help create jobs.
- From next month, there will be £2,000 return to work bonuses available to single parents
- Mr Brown pledged new centres for people to get vocational training
- He announced £65m to be spent in the coming year on employer training pilots
- Mr Brown said new plans to target young people at risk of causing crime would be unveiled.
- Child tax credit to rise by 13%, in line with earnings, over next three years
- Child benefit for the first child goes up 50p to £17 for the first child and up 35p to £11.40 for other children
- Help promised for early learning in every area for all children who need it
- Refund VAT incurred by local councils on children's centres
- Re-building programme for primary schools increased by £650m by 2010.
- Five-year, £1.5bn programme to renovate and renew further education colleges
- Investment in the three-year programme for IT capital in schools will be raised to £1.67 billion.
- The first 7,800 civil servants to be moved out of London had now moved to other parts of the UK
- Mr Brown said the first £2bn of savings from the Gershon review of government departments had been made.
- Thirty-five government agencies will be combined into just five - with changes in consumer and trading standards regulators and food inspectorates.
- Mr Brown said he would adopt the Better Regulation Task Force's call for targets for cutting red tape in every department year by year.
- The chancellor said there would be no further assessment of whether the UK should adopt the euro in this Budget.
- Extra £400m set aside for defence
- Troops injured in the line of duty will not have compensation payments taxed if they remain in the armed forces.
- New national community service for young people to be created with up to £150m to recruit one million young volunteers.
- Mr Brown said International Development Secretary Hilary Benn would announce he plans to sign new debt reduction deals with 19 of the world's poorest countries by July.
BBC NEWS: VIDEO AND AUDIO
Watch Gordon Brown deliver his Budget
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites