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We're going to wrap up our live coverage now - let's take a look at what we learned today:

What happened? Kwasi Kwarteng delivered a sweeping mini-budget in his first major speech as chancellor.

What was announced?

• Cuts to stamp duty foe homebuyers in England and Northern Ireland
• A cut in the basic rate of income tax will be brought forward by a year, and the 45% rate was scrapped
• A hike in National Insurance contributions was reversed
• Rules around universal credit were tightened, by reducing benefits if people don't fulfil job search commitments
• A UK-wide rise in corporation tax, which was due to increase from 19% to 25% in April 2023, was cancelled
• A cap on bankers' bonuses was scrapped

Find an easy-to-read list of all today's announcements here.

How was it received?

• The pound fell to a fresh 37-year low against the dollar as financial markets
• The government was accused by Labour and some charities of prioritising the richest proportion of the population
• Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called it "the wrong tax cut, at the wrong time"
• Meanwhile, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said the government was "totally out of touch with ordinary people and businesses"
• In an interview with the BBC, Kwarteng defended his policies, saying that they weren't a gamble

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The BBC's economics editor Faisal Islam has had a look at who are the winners and losers from the government's tax cut announcement.

The government is borrowing money to fund these tax cuts, pushing up interest rates and that could affect credit card rates and mortgages. Faisal explains.

Watch Faisal tell us the purpose behind the government's strategy:

Dharshini David
Global trade correspondent

The UK has underperformed compared to our major competitors - we’re a less efficient and high-earning nation than we could be. But is cancelling a planned rise in corporation tax the answer?

That rate is already below France and Germany - and would remain so even if it increased to 25%. Yet that hasn’t revived investment.

And with a recession likely looming, some companies may not even have profits to spare (or tax).

So what would help?

Some economists have said the decline in investment became particularly marked from the time of the 2016 referendum as businesses waited to see how Brexit panned out.

The International Monetary Fund is among those who told me that ending the current dispute with the EU over post-Brexit trading arrangements in Ireland could help revive investment, by removing uncertainty.

As we've been reporting, the financial markets haven't reacted well to Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's economic announcement, with the pound falling to a fresh 37-year low against the dollar.

But the government's new growth plan is being welcomed by centre-right think tank the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), which voiced particular support for the reversal of the National Insurance hike, the cancellation of a rise in corporation tax and the creation of low-tax investment zones.

Tom Clougherty, research director and head of tax at the CPS, says: "In its overall tone, and in its specific announcements, this was the best fiscal statement in years.

"No-one can doubt the new government’s commitment or ambition when it comes to making Britain more prosperous and dynamic."

It's a big day for businesses with the creation of new "investment zones", that will allow planning rules to be relaxed and will reduce business taxes to encourage investment in parts of the country.

The chancellor says the government is involved in early discussions with regions across England to establish the new zones, as well as the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Asif Hamid, chief executive of The Contact Company, a Merseyside-based customer service company which employs over 1,000 people, said he would be "really interested" if his region became an investment zone.

"We have got some amazing assets," he told the BBC.

"If someone could supercharge these assets and capabilities and attract investment and encourage innovation... we have to change and it's part of levelling up."

Image source, Getty Images

Hamid said it was important, that local people who "understand what the economy and the areas of businesses are" are consulted by the government in producing policies aiming to grow different industries.

"I think that's where the government could make real value on this one," he added.

Michael Buchanan
Social Affairs Correspondent, BBC News

Within an hour of the chancellor finishing his statement, dozens of people were queuing outside a food bank at All Hallows Church in Leeds.

Serving them tea and coffee as they waited in the warm autumnal sunshine, the vicar, the Rev Heston Groenewald, said he was frustrated by what the government had announced this morning.

“It’s not going to make positive change in the lives of the folks that we spend our days with. It’s increasing inequality rather than decreasing it, and that sucks," he said.

"I wish they would visit us and walk in the shoes of the people who are struggling with the cost of living crisis.

“It feels as though there’s a big disconnect between what’s going on on the ground and the decisions being made in Whitehall.”

Simon Jack
Business editor

If the UK economy is to grow, businesses will have to invest.

The government's pitch to domestic and international investors is simple - if you invest, you will pay lower tax, your workers will take home more pay and regulation will be less onerous.

Scrapping the cap on bankers' bonuses is a come hither to international banks who have resented paying higher basic salaries in Europe because it increases their fixed-costs relative to their sometimes volatile profits.

A new generation of investment zones will see tax reliefs on investment and big discounts on stamp duty and business rates.

A pledge that planning and environmental obstacles to development will be removed has been promised before but has often foundered on concerns of local communities. It remains to be seen whether these measures will just see firms relocate existing operations rather than spawning new economic activity.

But perhaps the biggest impediment to the kind of investment the government wants and needs is the short-term nature of the six-month support package for businesses struggling with their energy bills.

Measures to halve the bills firms would have received this winter have been welcomed but few businesses plan six months in advance.

If anything, heavy selling of both the pound and UK government bonds signal the rest of the world thinks the UK's economic prospects may have taken a turn for the worse today.

Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, says the government is "totally out of touch with ordinary people and businesses" adding that their plan won't help the "millions of struggling families faced with soaring bills for energy, food and mortgages".

He tells the BBC:

Davey says a windfall tax on oil and gas companies could raise more than £30bn over time to help people with energy costs.

He says the government has announced "irresponsible tax cuts for large companies" and are "borrowing recklessly".

As we heard a little earlier, our political editor Chris Mason has questioned Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng about his plans for the economy.

One of Kwarteng's colleagues said the plans were "a massive gamble" - see how he reacts to that below:

Georgina Rannard
Climate and science reporter

Image source, PA

In some potentially good news for the climate, the government says it will make it easier to build onshore wind farms in England.

It promises to “unlock the potential of onshore wind” by bringing planning rules in line with other infrastructure.

Strict planning laws introduced in 2015 effectively stopped the construction of onshore wind farms - an objection from just one person has been enough to stop a project.

As well as being good for the planet, onshore wind is a substantial source of cheap energy. In 2011 farms produced enough renewable electricity to power almost 2.4 million households, according to government figures, external.

Environmental groups are welcoming the move, saying it was long overdue.

But they caution that it follows government plans to lift the ban on fracking and drill for more North Sea oil and gas - both of which threaten the UK’s pledges to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We've been out in Norwich, Norfolk, to gauge people's opinions on today's mini-budget.

A couple, who had just bought a house together, will not benefit from the change in stamp duty.

See how they, and others, react below:

The government has a big persuasion job on its handspublished at 18:43 British Summer Time 23 September 2022

18:43 BST 23 September 2022

Chris Mason
Political editor

Technically, this wasn’t even a Budget.

The chancellor didn't wave his red box around on the doorstep of 11 Downing Street. But, inside the blue booklet tucked under his arm as he left for the Commons, were the biggest tax cuts in 50 years.

What we have heard today amounts to a wholesale shredding of previous economic policy; both the ones adopted by Conservative governments over the last 12 years, and those of Labour before that.

Economic growth, and plenty of it, is the prize sought - but it is a gamble. Ministers can't be certain it will work, nor that the methods used will be popular.

They think that doing nothing, the status quo, would be worse - a sluggish economy combined with spiralling prices condemning them to the doom of election defeat.

But combine colossal extra borrowing, an acknowledgement the rich will get richer and an economy the Bank of England reckons might already be in recession: together they mean the government has a big persuasion job on its hands, convincing people they know what they're doing, and that we'll all be collectively better off as a result.

The government hopes this set of measures will give the economy a giant injection of oomph.

It will certainly give politics that: the dividing lines between the Conservatives, Labour and others are bold and stark. And the water is very clear and very blue.

Finally, Chris Mason asks the chancellor whether he will acknowledge that the UK’s economic picture is bleak.

Kwarteng responds: "I don’t think it’s bleak, I think there are global challenges - if you look at unemployment, it’s at a 50-year low, if you look at things in R&D [research and development)] and science and tech, it’s very positive.

"There’s a global challenge with electricity prices. We’re confident we’ve got the right policies to steer us through this and we’re confident we can grow the economy."

Explaining the reason for scrapping the limits on bankers' bonuses, Kwarteng says this “is simple”.

"They’re taxed at nearly 50% now... I want London to be an international competitive hub. If we look around the world, even in Paris, bankers are taxed at 30%.

"I don’t want bankers to go to Paris, I want them to earn here."

Asked whether he is worried about the state of the economy given inflation and the value of the pound, the chancellor says that though there are global challenges, his government's intervention is "exactly the right thing."

"Clearly Putin's invasion has affected everybody in Europe with higher energy prices," he says. But "our intervention was exactly the right thing," he says.

"We simply couldn't tax our way to prosperity, we couldn't simply keep loading people with more tax burdens during the cost of living crisis," he says.

Our political editor Chris Mason asks why the chancellor has chosen to pile up the borrowing with the mini-budget?

Kwarteng responds by stating that the very high energy prices and lack of growth in the UK meant the government had to act to help people.

There's been "a real problem" with "sluggish growth" in the UK, he says. As a result, "in order to kickstart the economy", a different approach needed to be taken, which focuses on "generating growth," he explains.

"So what we've done is to try and incentivise investment deliberately," he says.

"Broadly, lots of people feel that we've got to get Britain moving," he adds.

In an interview with our political editor Chris Mason, Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng is adamant that the government's changes to tax, stamp duty and benefits are not a gamble.

"What was [a gamble] in my view, was sticking to the course we were on." he says, adding it was "unsustainable" to have taxes the highest they had been since the late 1940s.

"We had to have a reboot, a rethink, pushing growth and incentivising investment, and critically helping people on lower incomes keep more of the money they earn."

He says the economy was in the situation it is today due to "low growth, highest taxes anywhere in the G7 and increasing those taxes - no other G7 country was increasing taxes to deal with cost of living crisis".

Kwarteng says the Covid-19 pandemic and Putin’s war on Ukraine has had a global effect, and says it was "absolutely right" that the government helped people with an energy intervention and a reduced tax burden.

Image source, PA Media

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just been speaking to the BBC about today's mini-budget.

She says it's a "stunning admission from the chancellor" that the UK is in a vicious cycle of low growth, "criticising other Conservative governments, of which he has been a part".

Reeves says it's reckless to continue borrowing money, as this generation and future generations will have to fund the costs.

She adds, the Conservative government is more concerned about protecting the windfall profit of energy producers, rather than helping families with their energy bills and protecting tax payers against excessive borrowing.

Commenting on the pound falling to a fresh 37-year low against the dollar, Reeves says "we've seen the verdicts of the markets, they are very worried about the higher borrowing, higher government debt".

"It's the wrong tax cut, at the wrong time", Reeves adds.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us, here's a quick round-up of the main events of the day.

• Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his first major speech as chancellor this morning - the so-called mini-budget - in which he announced everything from stamp duty cuts in England and Northern Ireland to axing bankers' bonuses
• An easy-to-read list of all the announcements he made can be found here
• The chancellor rejected the suggestion his economic announcement was "a gamble", instead saying "what is a gamble is thinking that you can keep raising taxes and getting prosperity, which was clearly not working"
• The government has been accused - by Labour, charities and members of the public - of prioritising those with money in their growth plan. The Conservatives deny this criticism, with Treasury chief secretary Chris Philp saying everyone will benefit from the changes
• Businesses - which are set to benefit massively from the fiscal plans - have hailed the statement as a "turning point for our economy". The chancellor scrapped a 6% rise in corporation tax in his mini-budget
• Devolved leaders of the three UK nations outside of England all criticised the announcements, with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accusing the government of "incompetence and recklessness"
• Our personal finance team have been answering your questions following the mini-budget - you can catch up on their useful advice by scrolling down this page

After announcing a bold set of tax cuts in his mini-budget this morning, the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has said today is a "very good day for the UK".

Speaking to reporters during a visit to a factory in Kent this afternoon, he said the path the UK was on was "unsustainable" and it was "absolutely fair to reduce people's taxes".

But as we've reported, following his mini-budget announcements the British pound has fallen 3% against the dollar.

Asked whether the fall was good for the economy, the chancellor said: "I don't comment on market movements."