The government's expected to make a big push to tackle the housing crisis this Budget.

Chancellor Philip Hammond wants to accelerate the speed of house building - saying he wants to build 300,000 new homes a year.

Last year there were 217,350 "additional dwellings" built in England, up 15% on 2015-16.

Nick Eardley
BBC Scotland Westminster correspondent

BBC Breakfast

A husband and wife from Darlington tell BBC Breakfast they've seen their household budget squeezed.

Teacher Nicola says it's the little pressures which mount "like food going up and petrol always seems to be changing. It makes a difference".

They've both seen their wages either freeze or rise by as little as 0.5%, and friends have lost their jobs, with little employment opportunity.

Postman Dave says: "It's tougher in the north east. You feel left behind. We haven't had a pay rise in years."

One of the biggest single calls on the public purse is spending on health in the UK.

As this chart shows, spending has recently been rising sharply in comparison with counterparts in Europe - partly down to the country's ageing population.

Health service bosses will be waiting to see if Mr Hammond gives the NHS a cash injection in today's Budget.

Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor

What will the markets be watching for in the Budget?

They will be looking at borrowing and productivity figures, BBC economics editor Kamal Ahmed says on the Today Programme.

A major downgrade is expected in productivity - which is the ability of the economy to generate growth, Kamal says.

This has an effect on borrowing, because if the economy is producing less, then tax revenues will go down and the government will need to borrow more.

"The key test will be, yes he will borrow a little more, but how much? Will the Budget be stimulative - adding money to the economy - or will it be a Budget of cuts - taking money out of the economy?" Kamal says.

Image source, Getty Images

Simon Stevens, head of NHS England, is waiting to discover whether his warning that health services will deteriorate if there is not a significant cash boost in the Budget, will result in investment from the chancellor.

In a keynote speech at the NHS Providers conference, Mr Stevens said that waiting lists for non-urgent care in England will rise to five million without more money.

However, there are concerns at the highest level of NHS England that the plea may have fallen on deaf ears and that what might be spun in Whitehall as "more money for the NHS" will fall short of what is needed.

Mr Hammond's appearance on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme suggested he was not thrilled by Mr Stevens's intervention, external.

Read more on this from our health editor Hugh Pym.

After seven years of spending cuts and tax rises, government borrowing keeps falling.

Mr Hammond says he wants to entirely eliminate the deficit by the mid-2020s.

The question today is: will the chancellor have to revise his targets, and push back the date of balancing the books even further?

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

The biggest thing you do as chancellor when you're facing so many political problems is you do not mess up, Laura Kuenssberg says on the Today Programme.

One Cabinet minister recently told her, "If it is a difficult Budget, things may get very difficult", she says.

The chancellor has no majority, no money to spend unless he tears up his belief system and starts borrowing billions, and is facing big political problems too, she says.

"The Treasury will be happy if this is seen as a boring Budget with no mishaps," she adds.

Today's Budget is the first to be delivered in November since 1996.

Previously an Autumn Statement was released by the chancellor at this time of year with a Budget in March, but things have now been reversed with a Spring Statement now preceding the Budget speech.

Public sector workers in Wales hope the chancellor Philip Hammond's Budget will end their six-year pay freeze.

Wales has proportionately more public sector workers than the UK average.

There are 390,800 public sector workers in Wales and, as BBC Wales determined from a Freedom of Information request in October, 23,200 of them earn less than the so-called real living wage of £8.45 an hour.

Initially, a pay freeze affected public sector workers on salaries of more than £21,000 but since 2013, most annual public sector pay rises have been limited to an average of 1% a year.

Just under 28% of the Welsh workforce works in the public sector - a proportion that has only dropped slightly since the recession.

The highest proportion is nearly 32% in Rhondda Cynon Taff; the lowest are slightly more than 20% in Powys and Flintshire.

BBC Breakfast

Business presenter Steph McGovern says we can expect Budget announcements on plans to tackle the deficit and housing.

We know there's going to be a commitment to build 300,000 new homes in England, but no detail yet on where they'll be, what they'll cost, what type of houses they are likely to be, or how we'll pay for them.

We could hear about stamp duty and help for first time buyers.

We're expecting to hear quite a bit on skills and education for young people, and also that the Young Person's Railcard will go up to the age of 30.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Rupert Harrison was an adviser to George Osborne when he delivered his 2012 Budget - dubbed an "omnishambles" for its unpopular policies like the so-called "pasty tax".

Mr Harrison says that Budget is "burned on his mind". So how does Philip Hammond avoid such a fate, or a repeat of the U-turn he had to perform in the Spring Budget earlier this year?

"Budgets unravel if you do not have a majority in the House of Commons for the measures in them, and that is particularly likely at the moment because the government has a very small majority," he says.

"The likelihood of losing any controversial vote is very high, and so the key thing is to avoid them."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, AFP

Anastasia Nesvetailova, a professor of political economy at City University London who's advised the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, says it "probably should be a moment" for a radical Budget.

The chancellor needs to reassure the world that the UK is a going concern during Brexit, she says. For that, he should invest in people, and fund much more public spending by borrowing on the international markets.

Interest rates are very low and he needs to restore fragility in the economy, she says. "It takes political will, but it would be a wise thing to do."

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Why doesn't the chancellor open the cheque book and pull out the stops on areas like housing and public sector pay?

Rupert Harrison, who used to help George Osborne write his Budgets, says Philip Hammond does have "a little bit of wriggle room".

The budget deficit in 2010 was 10% of GDP, a post-war record, and a genuine risk to economic stability, says Mr Harrison, who is now at investment house Blackrock.

The deficit has now come down to 3%. "That's clearly no longer a crisis in the public finances. I don't think the markets would punish Philip Hammond if he loosened up a little bit in this Budget," he says.

But it would be a mistake for Philip Hammond to abandon his ambition to bring the budget deficit to zero, because the UK still has a large amount of debt which could make it vulnerable when the next crisis comes, he says.

Simon Jack
BBC Business Editor

Image source, Getty Images

Think you're a bit of a Budget expert? Well now you can prove it by having a go at our quiz.