Chancellor Jeremy Hunt cuts workers' National Insurance by another 2p in the Budget, meaning it falls from 10% to 8%
He says the cut, to begin next month, is worth £450 a year for the average worker
Hunt also increases the child benefit threshold from £50,000 to £60,000
Labour leader Keir Starmer calls the Budget a "last desperate act" with people paying "more and more for less and less"
New official forecasts say the government will collect 37.1p per pound of GDP in 2028/29 - the highest level in nearly 80 years
Hunt also increases the VAT threshold for small businesses to £90,000, and announces higher taxes on vapes and business class flights
And he says he's "abolishing" the "non-dom" tax system, but new arrivals to the UK will still not pay taxes on foreign income for four years
Speaking to the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason, Hunt confirms he is “making progress” towards abolishing NI altogether, but fails say whether income tax would be cut before the election
The secretary for energy security and net zero is giving up to £120m more to the Green Industries Growth Accelerator, Hunt says.
This is to build supply chains for new technology such as offshore wind and carbon capture.
Hunt also announces £270 million to advanced manufacturing industries, to fund car and space innovation, to grow "zero emission vehicle and clean aviation technology".
Image source, PA MediaWe're now hearing Hunt's assessment of other clean energy, specifically looking at nuclear energy which he says he wants to represent a quarter of our electricity by 2050.
Hunt says that he'd like the UK to lead the global race in developing cutting-edge nuclear technologies.
He says that Great British Nuclear, external - the government’s long-term nuclear programme - will begin the next phase of the Small Modular Reactor selection process. Companies have until June to submit their initial tender responses.
Simon Jack
Business editor
Some important business measures.
The threshold for VAT registration will go up from £85,000 to £90,000 - not as far as the £100,000 some were hoping for.
The chancellor says full expensing will apply to leased assets as soon as he can afford it and says his business investment stimulus is working.
"Business investment has risen from an average of 9.3% of GDP under Labour to 9.9% under the Conservatives. This year it will be 10.6% of GDP – generating £30bn more in business investment than if it had continued at Labour levels. And it is still going up," he says.
Dharshini David
Chief economics correspondent
The OBR confirms that the chancellor has met his primary rule to get the outstanding debt relative to the size of our economy down in five years – but only just, with a very small buffer.
And it will remain higher than it is now. It appears he’s scraped as much as he can for pre-election handouts.
Those rules themselves have been the source of criticism – for being loose and so easily gamed.
They mean that debt can rise in the short term as long as it falls between four and five years out.
And whether he meets them depends on the best stab of the OBR - its forecasts. Those may be wide of the mark, or indeed the economy easily blown off course.
But rules matter if the government is to keep the cost it borrows at via financial markets down.
Katy Austin
Transport correspondent
Image source, PA MediaThe Chancellor’s confirmation that as well as freezing fuel duty he’s keeping the “temporary” 5p cut, means it will stay at 53p per litre.
He says this will save average car drivers £50 next year.
The RAC motoring organisation says it’s good news, but points out drivers are currently seeing prices at the pump go up again as oil prices rise. Although they are nowhere near the highs seen over the past two years.
Given that no chancellor has increased fuel duty since 2011, raising it (which in theory is meant to happen every year) would have been a bold move in an election year.
Hunt is now moving on to how he intends to attract more investment.
The UK is on track to become the world's next Silicon Valley, he says.
Hunt says he wants entrepreneurs to not just start here, but to stay here especially when it comes to listing on the stock market.
He says they are looking at building on reforms to unlock more pension capital and make it easier for pensions funds to invest in the UK.
The chancellor says he is committed to providing more opportunities across the generations, including building more houses for young people
He says the government is on track to deliver over one million homes by the end of this parliament.
The government, the chancellor adds, has allocated £188m for projects in Sheffield, Blackpool and Liverpool.
Hunt says he will invest £242m in Barking Riverside and Canary Wharf.
According to him, this investment will see nearly 8,000 houses being built and it will also transform Canary Wharf into a hub for life science companies.
The chancellor turns his attention to what he describes as "historic under-investment" in the nations and regions.
He says more powers will be devolved to local areas.
He announces the "North-East trailblazer devolution deal", saying it will provide a package of support for the region potentially worth over £100m.
Since the Conservatives started its levelling-up policy in 2019, there has been an increase in new jobs and investment outside London and the South East, Hunt says, adding that more powers will also be devolved in Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire and Surrey.
The chancellor says he will reform the ISA system to encourage more people to invest in UK assets.
The government will create a “British” ISA in the form of an extra £5,000 tax-free allowance for the public to invest exclusively in UK.
"This will be on top of the existing ISA allowances and ensure that British savers can benefit from the growth of the most promising UK businesses as well as supporting them with the capital to help them expand," he says.
Dearbail Jordan
Business reporter
The OBR’s forecast for UK economic growth is barely altered from what it forecast at last November’s Autumn Statement.
A growing economy should mean more tax revenues for the Treasury.
Gross domestic product will be marginally higher this year but at 0.8% that's not much to shout about.
Economic growth will then be better than the OBR previously expected in 2025 and the following year.
In 2027, the OBR reckons the economy will grow by 1.8% compared to November's prediction of 2%. By 2028, it will tick lower to 1.7%.
Chris Mason
Political editor
A striking choice of language from the chancellor just now.
Jeremy Hunt talked about the economy having “turned a corner on inflation” and will “soon have turned the corner on growth.”
The whole idea of having turned a corner is a fascinating and contestable one.
The message the Conservatives want to emphasise is that this is happening under their stewardship – albeit with the acknowledgement just now from Hunt that we are not there with growth yet, given we are in a (mild) recession.
Labour will want to argue that however the numbers change and whatever is announced today, plenty of people will feel worse off than they did a handful of years ago, or since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
Since 2010, he says, the Conservative government has been stimulating investment to raise productivity.
This prompts jeers from across the room - which have been steadily growing over the last few minutes of the chancellor's address.
He says business investment this year will be 10.6% of Britain's GDP and continues to rise.
Nissan, Google and Microsoft are among businesses investing in the UK, he says.
Hunt recalls the Autumn Statement, in which he announced permanent "full expensing", a £10bn tax cut for businesses.
"Today I take further steps to boost investment," he says, and announces his intention to publish draft legislation for full expensing to apply to leased assets.
The OBR expects the economy to grow by 0.8% this year and 1.9% next year – that's 0.5% higher than their autumn forecast, Hunt says. This growth, he adds, is forecast to continue on this trend until 2027.
He says that the IMF believes the UK will continue to grow faster than Germany, France and Italy - three of Europe's largest economies - for the next five years.
He says his party has made good progress on the PM's three economic pledges. "Inflation has halved…debt is falling in line with our fiscal rules… and growth is fully 1.5 percentage points higher than predicted," he says.
Hunt speaks of the need bring down borrowing and to reduce the national debt.
He says that today's forecasts show debt will fall to below to 94% by 2028 and 2029, down from over 100%.
He says that UK continues to have the lowest national debt in the G7, lower than Japan, France and the United States.
Hunt is sharing borrowing figures and says that public sector should hit below 3%, three years early.
He says that by the end of the forecast, debt should be at lowest level since 2001.
Dearbail Jordan
Business reporter
Charities will welcome that six-month extension to the Household Support Fund for families in England - but it does fall far short of an extra two years that they had been seeking.
Hunt has now moved on to say that there can be no sound growth without sound finances.
He adds that it is only thanks to the Conservative government's ability to "responsibly reduce the deficit" that the state could help people during the pandemic.
The chancellor says under the Tories they managed to reduce the deficit "by 80% between 2010 and 2019", amounting to £370bn they could then provide to families and businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Chris Mason
Political editor
A key line very early on from the chancellor was this – his talk of “permanent tax cuts".
Nothing is necessarily permanent in economics or politics.
But the message Jeremy Hunt is keen to emphasise is his instinct and the direction of travel he will take when he deems it possible.
Faisal Islam
Economics editor
The internal forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), says inflation will go below the Bank of England target of 2% in a few months' time, nearly a year ahead of the previous OBR statement.
“That did not happen by accident,” says the chancellor, taking credit for “sound money” policies.
This is central to his pitch of a "turning point". Partly as a result of that, real disposable income is forecast to go up a little, having been forecast to fall by 2%.
Hunt says that tackling inflation, while necessary, is painful, and leads to higher interest rates and a period of lower growth.
He notes that over the last two years, the average household has received £3,400 in cost of living support.
One of the focuses today is on those falling into debt, he continues.
To help make loans for household emergencies more affordable, he announces an increase to the repayment period for new loans from 12 months to 24 months, and an end to a £90 charge for debt relief orders.
Fuel duty will remain at its current rate and be frozen for the next 12 months, the chancellor tells Parliament.
He will also extend a "temporary" 5p cut on fuel duty which was due to end this month.