Summary

  • New compulsory living wage of £9 hour by 2020

  • Chancellor delays plan for a budget surplus by a year

  • £37bn of spending cuts planned for this parliament

  • CBI warns of 'gamble' of raising minimum wage

  • Peston: 'Less austerity, more taxes'

  • Mortgage interest tax relief to be limited on buy-to-let

  • Tax on corporate profits to be cut to 18%

Live Reporting

Victoria King, Emma Ailes and Chris Johnston

  1. Peston preps

    BBC Economics editor Robert Peston tweets:

  2. Budget: Student grants face the axe

    Graduating studentsPA

    National Union of Students President Megan Dunn has given her reaction to the news that the Student Maintenance Allowance looks set to be axed - and it's not positive. 

    Cutting maintenance grants would be detrimental to hundreds of thousands of our poorest students who currently rely on it, and could risk putting many people off applying to university. We know that our poorest students are the most likely to be deterred by debt, but it could also affect where students choose to live and which courses to take. It will mean staying at home instead of moving into halls or shared accommodation and applying for shorter courses to reduce costs."

  3. Osborne's 'big' Budget

    Nick Robinson
    Political editor

    "Big. Very big". That's how one well-placed insider responded when asked about today's Budget.

    It ought to be. After all, this is the first Conservative budget in almost 20 years. The last was delivered by Ken Clarke in 1996. It has to deliver promises repeated for so long but yet to be delivered, like the cut to inheritance tax.

    It has to fulfil the Tories' stated goals of cutting spending, cutting welfare and cutting tax whilst still claiming to be the "workers' party" pursuing a One Nation "we're all in it together" philosophy.

    Read more on Nick's blog here

  4. Budget: 'Tories will discourage uni entrants'

    Email: haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

    This new Tory budget is only going to make things worse for the working class. We should especially be encouraging children to want to attend university and attain a degree to be able to have a bright future. Closing grants and converting them to loans is such a bad idea.  

    Poonam, Preston

  5. Low pay, tax credits and National Insurance

    It's thought that the chancellor may cut the working tax credit, which tops up the income of the low paid and costs £30bn year.

    But will George Osborne adjust National Insurance and income tax to compensate? Paul Lewis, the presenter of Radio 4's Money Box, has this useful info.

  6. Off to the Commons

    David CameronPA

    A chipper-looking David Cameron leaving Downing Street a short time ago.

  7. Finishing touches

    The chancellor tweets...

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  8. Varoufakis next job?

    Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis quits his job in the same week that a job opens up at Barclays. Perfect timing?

  9. Pension tax relief

    There is much speculation that the Chancellor will make changes to the tax relief for pensions in his budget today. BBC personal finance reporter Simon Gompertz tweets:

  10. Support for living wage

    Lawrence Jones founded the Manchester-based technology firm UKFast. He emails:

    I don’t always agree with Boris Johnson, but we are on the same page when it comes to encouraging businesses to pay the living wage. Raising the personal allowance is a step in the right direction, helping those on lower pay to keep more of their money, but I simply don’t understand why, as the owner of a company, you would want to pay your team the bare minimum? This makes no long term sense, as it doesn’t inspire loyalty and it definitely doesn’t make people feel valued. The government shouldn’t have to subsidize business owners whose practices are archaic and ineffective.”

    Lawrence Jones, Founder, UKFast,

  11. Student maintenance grants to be scrapped

      BBC News assistant political editor tweets:  

  12. Budget: Tax credit cuts 'all wrong'

    We are a family with 5 children, I work full time as a postman, my youngest is almost 2 and my partner looks after her, as her working is impossible, as we would be worse off!  

    Any tax credit cuts will be crippling, childcare is sky high and unaffordable, over £100 for 3 half days!  These cuts won't just affect those who dont work, it appears I would have to choose between buying food or paying my bills. It's all wrong.

    Business live reader Vincent Pulling

  13. Budget: Radical tax changes afoot?

    Pensions expert tweets

  14. Budget: Election promises

    Former Left Foot Forward blog editor tweets

  15. Fond farewell

    BBC Business Live presenter tweets

  16. Barclays boss fell out with directors

    BBC business editor tweets

  17. Budget: Student grants to go

    BBC assistant political editor tweets: