Summary

  • Institute for Fiscal Studies warns of another year of austerity

  • George Osborne hits back at critics

  • Labour says Budget is 'unfair' to those on low incomes

  • Small business groups hail Budget reforms

  • Questions about prospect of a surplus in 2020

Live Reporting

Russell Hotten

  1. As good as it gets?

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Aberdeen Asset Management chief economist Lucy O'Carroll tells Today that according to the figures in yesterday's Budget, the Chancellor will face a big fiscal squeeze in 2019/20 - just ahead of the general election in 2020. That's not a situation governments usually want to be in ahead of going into the polls, she says. 

    Given the Office for Budget Responsibility's response to the Budget yesterday, Ms O'Carroll adds that "this is quite possibly as good as it gets" for George Osborne.

  2. Sugar tax 'fiddling'

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Sugar cubesGetty Images

    Simon Walker says the Institute of Directors doesn't like the sugar tax announced in the Budget.

    I don't think we like the sugar tax - it seems to me fiddling... I don't think targeting specific products with variable taxes on a hypothecated basis is ever really a good idea."

  3. Business rate changes 'very welcome indeed'

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    The measures in the Budget to help small businesses have been "enormously positive" says Simon Walker of the Institute of Directors.

    The changes to business rates... are very welcome indeed."

  4. Budget good for businesses big and small: CBI

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Carolyn FairbairnGetty Images

    CBI chief Carolyn Fairbairn tells Today that it was a “super Budget” for small business, but was also good for the bigger companies that are members of her organisation.

    But given that many small businesses are part of a wider supply chain, she argues it would be "helpful" to stop talking about the dichotomy between big and small firms.

  5. Budget 'has delayed the problem'

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    The cut in Britain's economic growth forecast for 2016 and 2017 in the Chancellor's Budget statement sent sterling to a two-week low against the dollar.

    Speaking on Wake Up to Money, Justin Urquhart Stewart, founder of Seven Investment management, said Mr Osborne has pushed everything back to 2020.

    "He has delayed the problem....by 2020 he doesn't care, he won't be Chancellor. He'll either be the Prime Minister or out of a job." 

  6. New Rio Tinto boss
    Breaking

    Rio Tinto chief executive Sam WalshGetty Images

    Sam Walsh (pictured) is being replaced as chief executive of mining giant Rio Tinto by Jean Sebastian Jacques, head of its copper division. 

  7. Lifetime Isa's 'hugely welcome'

    Was the lifetime ISA a rabbit out of a hat, Maike Currie of Fidelity Investment is asked on Wake UP to Money?

    No-one was expecting that, that was certainly one of the Chancellor's white rabbits. It's hugely welcome for savers and investors, it's hugely welcome for the younger generation, and especially for the self-employed in the wake of the credit crunch a lot of people have gone on their own - sole traders, freelancers, contractors - it's great working for yourself, but you do give up employee benefits like pension schemes."

  8. Wake Up To Money are at Billingsgate market for budget reaction

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  9. Slowing growth has left Chancellor 'in a mess'

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    The biggest assumption that a surplus can be met in 2020 is that the economy will continue to grow at about 2%. "Recently that's been a lot slower", says Jamie.

    The Office for Budget Responsibility has now assumed that growth will be a little bit slower than previously thought, and that's why the Chancellor finds himself in this mess."

  10. 'Difficult' for Chancellor to meet surplus target

    BBC Radio 5 Live

    Jamie Murray, chief economist for Bloomberg, tells Wake Up to Money "it's going to be difficult" for the Chancellor to meet his 2020 surplus target.

    It looks quite a lot like he's taken the bad news that he's experienced over the past quarter and just shifted it back out to 2019/2020 - so that's when the spending cuts are planned for, it's when there's some movements in taxes that deliver a surplus, so it feels less like a Budget for the long term and more like a Budget for the next four months - the likelihood is this is all going to change in the Autumn statement."

  11. Good morning

    We can expect plenty of business reaction to the Budget this morning, and the Chancellor will be doing a round of interviews. And later on, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee will give a rates decision.