Summary

  • George Osborne presents the 2015 budget

  • 2015 UK growth revised up to 2.5% by OBR

  • Chancellor pledges to end austerity by 2019/20

  • Tax free allowance to go up to £10,800 next year

  • New personal savings allowance for first £1,000 interest

  • Labour leader says chancellor has 'failed working families'

  1. Budget debatepublished at 17:52 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    George Osborne's Budget statement may have finished several hours ago, but MPs are busy debating his announcements in the House of Commons - and will do for days to come. The debate is split over four days, and concludes on Monday. Our colleagues at BBC Democracy Live bring you all the latest.

  2. Tweet uspublished at 17:37 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    In the last 24 hours over 166,000 people have tweeted using the hashtag #budget2015. It has been the most popular Budget hashtag by far.

  3. Get in touchpublished at 17:36 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    James Burns emails: I thought the government should have taxed alcoholic drinks sold in supermarkets and gambling more. Also, I think more investment in mental healthcare and care for the elderly is massively needed in this country. Investment should come in the form of training and education. Also, there should be better facilities and homes. If mental health care and care for the elderly is incorporated into the health service it can be treated as more of a real career pathway. Finally, there should be investment in personal financial help, especially from a young age. It is important that people know how to save their money and what the correct account is for them.

  4. Laura Kuenssberg, BBC Newsnight chief correspondentpublished at 17:34 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Tweets, external: Lab insist claim Tories wd take spending back to 30s holds-expect lots of shouting on both sides on this over next 6 wks + not much clarity

  5. Tax changespublished at 17:34 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Barnardo's logoImage source, Barnardo's

    Some reaction to the chancellor's budget from Barnado's chief executive, Javed Khan. He said: "We're disappointed that the chancellor has chosen to combat in-work poverty with tax changes that benefit higher earners three times more than the poor. Struggling working families will see precious little from the tax change."

  6. Get in touchpublished at 17:32 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Katrina in North Wales emails: So Britain is 'walking tall'?? Perhaps George Osborne would like to go and spread this message at his nearest food bank! Another budget with little or no meaning for anything other than the upper classes...

  7. 'Bit of a flop'published at 17:32 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Some more from Labour's media briefing, which our political correspondent Robin Brant has been attending. He tells us Mr Balls, the shadow chancellor, has described the budget as "a bit of a flop" and challenged the "hubris" of Mr Osborne's version of the economy which he branded "entirely out of touch".

    Mr Balls pointed repeatedly to the OBR's prediction that spending cuts will see a "sharp acceleration", and said Mr Osborne had moved forward the planned cuts and increased them in depth to the first three years of the parliament. He also said the chancellor had so far only set out how he would pay for 25% of projected £12bn welfare cuts.

    On Mr Osborne's claim that living standards would be higher this year than they were in 2010, Mr Balls said this would not be the case, adding that the government measure of this is "imperfect".

  8. Get in touchpublished at 17:31 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Tony emails: he Chancellor says: "A new personal savings allowance of £1,000 will be introduced in April next year, removing the first £1,000 of savings income from income tax" Is this in addition to ISA interest, or does ISA interest paid count towards the £1,000 limit?

  9. 1930s spending levels?published at 17:30 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Labour is not ditching its claim that the Conservatives would take the UK to public spending levels not seen since the 1930s. In an on-the-record briefing, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the spending forecast by the OBR based on government numbers would be "deep and extreme and back to the 1930s on the basis of the numbers that are here (in the red book)".

    Mr Balls insisted the spending plans would see a fall in 2018 "to the lowest level of GDP since 1938". The distinction here is that the chancellor said his plans would see spending in 2019 - the following year - at 36% of GDP, the same level Labour was spending in 2000.

  10. Get in touchpublished at 17:29 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Robert Brooks emails: Once again the government has talked up increasing the inheritance tax threshold above the current £325,000 per person (unchanged for 7 Years) and once again there was a deafening silence. The government is always on about being fair but the savings benefits are mainly for people paying mortgages and borrowing, due to the low interest rates. The government's / Bank of England's policy of quantative easing and cheap money loans to the the banks has resulted in a devastating drop in interest for savers. The inheritance tax income to the Government is less than £3 billion. A trifling amount compared to the overall budget. The rapid increase in house prices has been accelerated by the low mortgage rates and is out of the control of those homeowners affected and affects the majority, who originally bought relatively modest homes. The government promised a £1,000,000 inheritance tax threshold before the last election and once elected promptly reneged on it.

  11. Get in touchpublished at 17:27 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Joshua emails: I'd like to see a fair and even minimum wage for all school leavers who are no longer in education. I'm just about to turn 21 and for my three years of full time work, and now relevant qualification within my industry, I am still paid below the national minimum wage for a 21 year old worker. Why should an employee doing the same job be paid less simply because they are under a certain age? If we really want to get young people into work give them an incentive to do so.

  12. Tweet uspublished at 17:26 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    @Outoftweet123 tweets: @BBC_HaveYourSay where in the budget is the £200bn needed for infrastructure projects #hs2 #hs3 #crossrail2?

  13. Beer dutypublished at 17:24 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    BBC News Channel

    Steve Pickthall

    Craft brewer Steve Pickthall, of the Out There Brewing Company, welcomes the cut in beer duty. But he puts the cut in perspective: "You've still got to buy 300 pints before you get a free one," he tells the BBC.

  14. Fraser Nelson, Editor, The Spectatorpublished at 17:24 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Borrowing figures comparisonImage source, The Spectator

    Tweets, external: Is it rude to point out that Osborne's new debt plan still way above the Darling plan he once denounced? #Budget2015

  15. Get in touchpublished at 17:22 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    James emails: I find it irritating how we get the same "the poorer get poorer" line from the same people after every budget that this government makes. The personal allowance has gone up by £4000 in this parliament. I think some people before spouting about the 'cost of living crisis' should remember that we are still getting over a huge recession, and bear in mind when complaining about price rises that we basic rate taxpayers (I earn 15k in case you were wondering) are allowed to keep around £800 more, which goes some way to offsetting those rises.

  16. Tweet uspublished at 17:22 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    @carlh281161 tweets: @bbc_haveyoursay a tax free allowance on savings would be useful if people actually were able to earn interest on them! #pointless #rip-off

  17. Tweet uspublished at 17:14 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    @TaleahPrince tweets:, external @BBC_HaveYourSay - positive reaction from the stock exchange on the budget - raised quite sharply when announced oil tax reductions

  18. Market updatepublished at 17:08 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    FTSE 100 share price graph

    The chancellor's raised growth forecast for 2015 and confident economic outlook helped push London's benchmark index higher. The FTSE 100 ended the day up 1.57% at 6,945.2 points. Standard Chartered surged 8.08% on broker upgrades.

  19. Savings changespublished at 17:06 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Chris Mason
    Political correspondent, BBC News

    George Osborne is making the first £1,000 of the interest earned on savings tax-free from April 2016. Higher-rate taxpayers will benefit, but only from the first £500 of their savings. This will help the vast majority of taxpayers, but not by very much - few of us have enough dosh in the bank to earn more than a grand in interest in a year. The Treasury estimates the average benefit will be around £15 per year.

  20. 'Aggressive campaign'published at 16:57 Greenwich Mean Time 18 March 2015

    Writing in the Spectator, external, Isabel Hardman explains what the Budget says about the election campaign. "The NHS was the one line of attack that Osborne didn't shut down, and it will be the main line of attack in an aggressive campaign from Labour. Labour will try to scare voters about the prospect of the Tories being in charge of the NHS as the Tories try to scare voters about the prospect of a Labour Chancellor. The result of the election may end up hinging simply on which is the least scary prospect."