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2007 Budget Highlights
# Basic rate of income tax to fall from 22p to 20p from April next year.
# Lower starter rate of 10p to go, meaning all those who pay income tax will start at 20p in the pound - meaning little difference likely to take-home pay.
# Top-rate income tax threshold will rise to £43,000 from April 2009.
CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL
# 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 and similar products to be cut from 17.5% to 5%.
TRANSPORT
# Fuel duty up 2p per litre from October, in line with inflation.
# Putting VAT on airline tickets ruled out.
# Road tax on highest-polluting vehicles up to £300 and to £400 from April next year.
# The least-polluting vehicles to have their duty cut to £35.
EDUCATION, FAMILIES AND HEALTH
# Child benefit, for a first child, will rise from £17.45 a week to £20 a week by 2010.
# Some 50,000 16 to 17-year-olds who sign activity and learning agreements to receive a training wage in return for gaining skills.
# The £40-a-week in-work bonus paid to lone parents to be extended to their first 12 months in work.
# Education spending in England will rise from £60bn this year to £74bn in 2010. From now to 2010 spending per pupil rise by a further 20% - 10% cent in real terms - to £6,600
# Public investment in science will rise from £5bn this year to £6.3bn by 2010/11.
# Investment in the NHS in England to rise by £8bn this year.
INHERITANCE/CAPITAL GAINS
# Tax exemption for capital gains will rise from £8,800 to £9,200, and will be £18,400 for married couples.
# Inheritance tax will threshold to rise from £285,000 now to £350,000 in 2010.
PENSIONERS
# 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 between £300 and £4,000 for pensioners installing insulation and central heating in their homes.
# 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.
ENVIRONMENT
# Until 2012 all new zero carbon homes up to £500,000 will be exempt from stamp duty.
# The landfill tax will rise by £8 each year from April 2008.
COMPANIES
# Corporation tax will be cut from 30p to 28p from April next year.
# Tax rate on small companies to be raised in three stages from 20p this year to 22p in 2009.
THE ECONOMY
# Mr Brown said the British economy was growing faster than all the other G7 economies.
# 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%.
# 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.
GOVERNMENT SPENDING
# Asset sales will rise from £18bn to £36bn, including 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.
Below inflation spending settlements for some departments: Work and Pensions; Revenue and Customs; Cabinet Office; Treasury; Department for Constitutional Affairs; Attorney General's Office.
# Efficiency savings of 3% each year to mean the government can release £26bn a year by 2010/11 for frontline services.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
# £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.
Source: BBC
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