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UK Budget 2011 - Politics
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Lack of drama is ideal mood music
The fate of George Osborne and the coalition rests on a single question hanging over this reassuringly boring package: will Plan A deliver?
Conservatives pleased with Osborne balance
Tory troops piled out of the chamber on Wednesday satisfied that their chancellor had stuck to his guns on deficit reduction while also doing his utmost to deliver a “pro-growth” budget in the face of fiscal restraint
Lib Dems claim ownership of policies
Coalition’s junior partners insist the Budget was more than a merger of the two party’s separate positions as they lay claim to policies ranging from levies on oil companies and private jets to raising the tax-free income allowance
Cuts have barely begun to bite
Over the next few years, the pain will be cumulative and unremitting, however much growth in private sector employment offsets public sector job losses
Miliband homes in on growth forecast
Ed Miliband sought to take the shine off a Budget focused on growth and Middle England, by zeroing in on the downgrade of this year’s growth forecast
Unions see shift in favour of ‘wealthy elite’
Worker leaders savaged the Budget – and the coalition’s wider economic strategy – as they encouraged members to turn up in force for an anti-cuts demonstration in London on Saturday
Mixed signals sent to wealthy
The chancellor laid out a welcome mat for entrepreneurs and wealth creators while signalling the government’s determination to be tough on rich tax dodgers
Charities’ leaders welcome Budget donation
George Osborne devotes a big part of his speech to outlining tax breaks that should be worth at least £540m to the third sector – including changes to inheritance tax and to Gift Aid
Corporation tax giveaway eludes banks
The chancellor moved to pre-empt criticism that he was giving Britain’s financial services industry an easy ride with an unexpected £100m a year increase to the new £2.5bn annual levy on their balance sheets
Regular rises in pension age put on agenda
A standing commission to recommend regular increases in state pension age was trailed by George Osborne in the Budget, who also confirmed the government aims to create a single, flat-rate pension
