The key points from the UK Budget

See original article

· Gordon Brown said his Budget would "expand prosperity and fairness for British families".

· Beer will rise by 1p a pint from midnight Sunday, cider by 1p a litre, wine by 5p a bottle and sparkling wine by 7p. Duty on spirits will be frozen.

· Cigarettes to rise by 11p a packet. VAT on nicotine patches to be cut from 17.5% to 5%.

· Corporation tax will be cut from 30p to 28p from April next year.

· Tax exemption for capital gains will rise from £8,800 to £9,200, and will be £18,400 for married couples.

· Inheritance tax threshold will rise from £285,000 now to £350,000 in 2010.

· Child benefit, for a first child, will rise from £17.45 a week to £20 a week by 2010.

· Tax-free allowance for pensioners under 75 will rise in three stages from £7,280 to £9,770 in 2011. For over-75s, the tax free allowance will rise annually from £7,420 to by £10,000 by 2011.

Grants of £300 to £4,000 for pensioners installing insulation and central heating in their homes.

· Until 2012 all new zero carbon homes up to £500,000 will be exempt from stamp duty.

· 50,000 16 to 17-year-olds who sign activity and learning agreements will receive a training wage in return for gaining skills.

· All the 125,000 people who lost their pensions because of company insolvency will get help with a financial assistance scheme increased from £2bn to £8bn.

· Mr Brown said the British economy was growing faster than all the other G7 economies. Growth is stronger than the Euro area, Japan and America.

· Inflation will be on target in 2008 and 2009, according to forecasts.

· In the last year investment has grown by 6%, business investment by 7%, and inward investment by 10%. Business investment is forecast to rise again by more than 7% this year.

· In the last year employment has risen, with 220,000 more men and women in work.

· In 2008, Britain's growth will be the highest in the G7, between 2.5% and 3%.

· The landfill tax will, rise by £8 each year from April 2008.

· Fuel duty rises set at 2p for 2008, and 1.8p for 2009.

· Britain's net borrowing, which in the early 1990s went as high as 8% of national income is this year just 2.7%. It will fall to 1.4% by 2012.

· Asset sales will rise from £18bn to £36bn, with the sale of spectrum, a £6bn sale of the student loan book, and further financial and corporate sales at home and overseas.

· Investment in schools, hospitals, security and defence and infrastructure will rise from £43bn this year to £60bn by 2012.

· Total government spending will rise to £674bn by 2010/11.

· An extra £400m to be allocated to the Ministry of Defence to cover overseas commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

· Investment in the NHS in England will rise by £8bn this year.

· Public investment in science will rise from £5bn this year to £6.3bn by 2010-11.

· Tax rate on small companies to be raised in three stages from 20p this year to 22p in 2009.

· £50m for a 10-country initiative across central Africa to prevent the destruction of the second largest rain forest in the world.

· £800m to the Environmental Transformation Fund, jointly run by the international development and environment secretaries.