UK Pre-Budget 2005
Resources
Doubts cast over Brown’s rules for economy
The National Audit Office gave a highly-qualified endorsement of the chancellor’s decision to change the dates of the economic cycle.
UK oil profits tax rise may hit North Sea exploration
Potential blow from the British government.
Brown defends tax raid on Britain’s oil industry
Chancellor to raise extra £3bn from business
Brighter future delayed for a couple of years
Brown’s growth forecast takes a big downward revision
Companies told to ‘use or lose’ import gas capacity
Effort to avert threatened power cuts this winter
Related content and features
Q&A
Our expert writers answer readers’ questions
Economics editor Chris Giles, tax correspondent Vanessa Houlder and personal finance editor Rob Budden answer your questions on the pre-Budget report.
Key points
Speech summary
Read FT.com’s at-a-glance guide to Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget report for a summary of the main points of the chancellor’s update.
Reaction: at a glance
Business, unions and lobby groups give their verdict
Comment
Martin Wolf: Chancellor risks tarnishing his legacy
Gordon Brown is on thinning ice. Labour has used up all – probably more than all – of its margin of fiscal manoeuvre. It must now face painful choices.
Analysis
Philip Stephens: Brown’s largesse to Cameron
The chancellor, more impatient by the day to swap the Treasury for the premiership, was drawing afresh the political dividing lines between left and right.
Business
Jonathan Guthrie: Bad Santa brings paltry gifts
The chancellor slapped one windfall tax on energy companies, proposed another for landowners and jacked up the costs of small businesses.
Notebook
Robert Shrimsley: Man enough not to say sorry
The public warms to someone who is big enough to admit he is not perfect. Monday was that day for Gordon Brown, and so the chancellor strode manfully into the Commons chamber and did...no such thing.
More Pre-Budget stories
