Budget 2012 at a glance
The key measures of the 2012 Budget include:
The economy
GDP growth: the OBR says Britain will avoid a recession, revising up its 2012 growth forecast to 0.8% growth (from 0.7% forecasted at the time of the autumn statement)
Borrowing: The government will be attempting to reduce borrowing by £126 billion in 2012/13, with an aim to eliminate Britain's underlying deficit within five years. Osborne says a spare £11 billion will be used to "pay down debt". The government is saving a total of £36 billion in debt interest payments compared to its predecessor.
Credit easing: The new National Loan Guarantee Scheme will go ahead as planned, with £20 billion of guarantees in total to be made available.
Sunday trading laws for the Olympics are being relaxed for eight Sundays only, starting on July 22nd.
A new "enterprise loan" for young people to start business is being introduced.
Family policy and benefits
There will be an automatic review of the state pension age to ensure it keeps pace with increases in longevity.
Child tax benefit will only be withdrawn when someone in the household has an income of more than £50,000, meaning an extra 750,000 families will keep some or all of their child benefit. Ninety per cent of all families will remain eligible for child benefit.
Pensions
The government will simplify the tax system for pensioners by doing away with the complexity of the additional age-related allowances and freezing the cash value of the allowance for existing pensioners until it aligns with the personal allowance.
Pensioners next month will receive the cash increase in the basic state pension of £5.30 a week.
A new single tier pension for future pensioners, set above the means test, will be introduced.
Housing
A newly "reinvigorated" Right to Buy programs will be put in place.
The government will expand the Get Britain Building fund.
Taxes
There will be new measures to tax small firms on the basis of the cash that passes through their businesses, rather than asking them to spend a huge amount of time doing calculations designed for big business.
The government is seeking to address some of the loopholes and anomalies in VAT system.
A new Personal Tax Statement will be introduced letting taxpayers know how much income tax and national insurance they have paid; their average tax rates; and how this contributes to public spending.
The government will introduce an "Above the Line" R&D tax credit, and double the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme grant limit to £250,000.
Corporation tax will be cut to 24%, one per cent more than previously planned. By 2014, Britain will have a 22% rate of corporation tax.
The government will increase the rate of the bank levy to 0.105 per cent so the additional corporation tax cuts does not benefit banks.
A general anti-avoidance rule will be introduced.
The stamp duty land tax charge applied to residential properties over £2 million will be increased to 15%.
The government will introduce a new stamp duty land tax rate of 7% on properties worth more than £2 million.
Anyone seeking to claim more than £50,000 of tax reliefs in any one year will have a cap set at 25% of their income.
The top rate of tax will be cut to 45p.
The amount people can earn tax free will increase by £1,100 – people will be able to earn up to £9205 before they have to pay any tax.
Infrastructure
The government is looking at opportunities for increasing the role of private investment in the road network.
There will be a deal with Manchester to support £1.2 billion in growth-enhancing infrastructure.
An extra £270 million will go to the Growing Places fund, and there will be a new £70 million development fund for London.
The government is funding ultra fast broadband and wifi in ten cities: Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and London. £50 million will be available for smaller cities too.
Environment and Energy
Combined Heat and Power plants will not be liable to carbon price support rates on fuels used for heat.
The government will implement a major package of tax changes to achieve greatest possible amount of oil and gas from reserves in the North Sea. There will be new allowances including a £3 billion new field allowance for large and deep fields.
Science
There will be no cuts to the science budget.
The government is committing £100 million of support, alongside the private sector, for investment in major new university research facilities.
Entertainment
The government is introducing tax credits for the video games, animation and high-end TV production industries.
Defence
The chancellor announced that there are £2.4 billion in savings expected from Afghan troop withdrawal in 2013/4. An extra £100 million will be spent on improvements in the accommodation of armed forces and their families.
The government will also double family welfare draft for service families and give soldiers 100% relief on council tax.
'Vice' taxes
There will be no increases on alcohol duty.
Duty on all tobacco products will rise by five per cent above inflation – up to 37 pence on a packet of cigarettes.
The government will introduce of new Machine Games Duty to curb gambling – with a standard rate of 20% and a lower rate for low stakes and prize machines of five per cent of net takings.
Transport
Network Rail will extend the Northern Hub, adding to the electrification of the trans-Pennine rail route, by upgrading the Hope Valley line between Manchester and Sheffield as well as improving the Manchester to Preston and Blackpool, and Manchester to Bradford lines.
There will be no cuts to fuel duty, and the chancellor is increasing Vehicle Excise Duty by inflation only.
The government will extend the 100% first year capital allowance for low emission business cars, reduce the CO2 threshold for the main capital allowance rates and increase the percentage list price of company cars subject to tax.
Exports
The government's goal is to double exports to one trillion and is working with a dozen pension schemes to attract foreign investment.
The government is also expanding UK Export Finance and setting out new plans to help smaller firms in new markets.
