UK Budget 2006
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Chancellor’s schools pledge could cost £17bn
Gordon Brown’s Budget pledge to close the funding gap between state and private schools could cost £17bn and take 16 years to complete, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said.
NHS hit by higher education spending
Projections for public expenditure indicate NHS to be squeezed
Video: Martin Wolf - Brown is trying to establish his domestic agenda
Budget built around spending on the Public Services
PM fights to hold job and restore probity
When will Tony Blair quit Downing Street?
Video: Philip Stephens on Brown’s most political Budget yet
This was Gordon Brown’s final bid for the leadership
Related content and features
Q&A
Ask the experts: Budget 2006
Economics editor Chris Giles, personal finance editor Rob Budden and tax correspondent Vanessa Houlder answer your questions on what could be Gordon Brown’s last Budget as chancellor.
BUSINESS REACTION
In their own words
“I think this is a good budget for a number of reasons. Firstly Gordon Brown has not raised taxes which is psychologically very important. He has also rightly earmarked education as a major priority.” Richard Branson, Virgin
SKETCH
Matthew Engel: Cameron outshines rival
Now here is a first. The chancellor performed his great annual ritual - and all anyone wanted to talk about afterwards in Westminster was David Cameron.
LEX
BEST OF LEX: Week 18 Mar - 24 Mar
Lex: UK Budget 2006
Gordon Brown may come to regret his 10th budget. Supremely confident, he launched a barrage of voter-friendly initiatives, from school science clubs to housing insulation. Yet on the central economic issue of whether his numbers add up, he said almost nothing.
ECONOMY
Martin Wolf: Enough of Soviet tractor planning
The chancellor remains a man obsessed with quantitative targets for inputs and outputs rather than someone who has internalised the role of incentives and the extent of our uncertainty about the future.
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
Boxed in chancellor presents holding Budget
Gordon Brown rounded off his Budget with a plethora of education initiatives, designed to make a big impact, but even the most cursory look at the numbers underpinning the speech tells a very different story, writes Chris Giles.
CITY VIEW
Brown has Budget day off pat
In a climate of suspicion, where financiers are haunted by phrases like “double taxation” and “retrospective action,” the small print in this Budget will be crawled over deep into the night, writes Paul Murphy.
PUBLIC POLICY
Chancellor squeezes Whitehall budgets
The first pangs of pain for Whitehall departments and at least some public sector employees came as Gordon Brown trimmed pay awards and the budgets of several departments, writes Nick Timmins.
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