Reforms to business rates that will mean 600,000 small businesses pay no rates and 250,000 have their rates cuts from April 2017 were welcomed by loud cheers from Conservative backbenchers. Mr Osborne says: "This is a Budget for small businesses." 

BBC politics presenter Andrew Neil tweets:

Tolls on the Severn Crossings between England and Wales are to be halved by 2018, the Chancellor has announced. 

The Chancellor announces tax cuts for the oil and gas industry. Petroleum revenue tax is effectively abolished - something that is only affordable because Scotland has remained in the UK.

Mr Osborne repeats his mantra that "we are all in this together" as he says figures confirm the richest 1% paid 28% of income tax revenue. Insisting that the Government was acting "in a fair way", he said: "Child poverty is down; pensioner poverty is down; inequality is down; and the gender pay gap has never been smaller." 

The Chancellor announces a series of actions to tackle tax avoidance and evasion totalling £12bn, including moves to end the use of "personal service companies" by public sector employees to minimise their tax liabilities. A number of TV personalities have faced criticism for their use of the tax loophole.  

The Chancellor George Osborne opened his 2016 Budget with comments about the UK economy.

Mr Osborne announces a corporation tax cut. It was 20% at the start of the parliament. By 2020 it will fall to 17%. "Britain is blazing a trail, let the rest of the world catch up," the Chancellor says.

The new debt and GDP forecasts mean that the Chancellor has missed his target of starting to cut the national debt, as a percentage of output, this financial year. According to the OBR that now will not happen until 2017-2018.  

Sterling has taken a bit of a tumble in response to the OBR's downgrade of the UK's economic growth forecasts through to the end of this parliament. The pound is 0.6% lower against the US dollar at $1.407. It's also down 0.34% against the euro at €1.270. 

Here's how those revised economic growth forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility look compared to its previous figures:

Mr Osborne says the government is announcing changes to the disability budget. Even so, he says, spending on disability is rising, and is higher than under Labour.

Despite a downgrade to the UK's growth forecasts, Mr Osborne seems bullish on jobs. He says that the OBR is forecasting another 1m jobs created in this parliament. The Chancellor adds that the forecast shows real wages will continue to rise.  

The Office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded its forecast of UK economic growth in 2015 from 2.4% to 2.2%. 

Figures are also revised downwards for the following years - from 2.4% to 2% in 2016, from 2.5% to 2.2% in 2017, from 2.4% to 2.1% in 2018 and from 2.3% to 2.1% in both 2019 and 2020.   

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg tweets: