Budget 2008

[chatman]

Here's the low down so far...

Here are the key points from the Chancellor Alistair Darling's 2008 Budget:

CIGARETTES AND ALCOHOL

# Cigarettes up 11p a packet of 20 from 1800 GMT; five cigars up 4p.

# Beer up by 4p a pint, wine 14p a bottle, spirits 55p a bottle and cider 3p a litre by Sunday.

# Duties on alcohol will go up by 2% above inflation for next four years.

CARS, FUEL AND ROAD PRICING

# From 2009, major reform of the vehicle excise duty. For new cars from 2010, the lowest-polluting cars will pay no road tax in the first year. Higher-polluting cars will pay more.

# Funding set aside for road-pricing proposals.

# 2p increase in fuel duty is postponed until October this year.

# For environmental reasons, fuel duty will rise by 0.5p per litre in real terms in 2010.

HOUSING

# From April, key workers, such as teachers and nurses, will be able to borrow money from shared equity schemes.

# Stamp duty on shared ownership homes will not be required until people own 80% of their home.

# More people should have the chance to have a long-term fixed mortgage, which a report shows can reduce the risks for first-time buyers and can keep them on the housing ladder.

# Sites for 70,000 more houses have been identified.

PENSIONERS

# Winter fuel allowance will go up from £200 to £250 for the over 60s and from £300 to £400 for the over 80s.

BENEFITS

# From October 2009, rules for housing and council tax benefit will mean families on benefit are better off in work.

# From April, 2009, child benefit will be increased to £20 a week.

# From April 2010, all long-term recipients of incapacity benefit will attend work capacity programmes.

BUSINESS

# £60m over three years for equipping people to return to the workplace.

# Corporation tax will fall from 38% to 28% by April this year, with simpler taxes for small companies.

# More help for small businesses, with capital gains tax remaining at 10%.

# Funds available through the small firms loans guarantee will increase by 60% in the next year.

# There will be a capital fund of £12.5m to encourage more women entrepreneurs.

AIRPORTS AND AIR TRAVEL

# New measures at Heathrow and other airports, using biometric technology, to speed up the time it takes to get through security checks.

ENVIRONMENT

# Laws will be introduced by 2009 to tax plastic bags if shops do not do more to charge for their use.

# £26m to help make homes greener.

# New non-domestic buildings to become zero-carbon from 2019.

# The government is asking the European Commission for tougher targets on car fuel emissions

# Consideration is being given to raising the UK target for emissions cuts to 80% by 2050.

EDUCATION

# There will be £200m extra for schools to raise GCSE results. By 2011, every school "will be an improving school".

# There will be a £30m fund to improve science teaching.

POVERTY

# Child poverty must be eradicated in Britain. Total of 600,000 fewer children in relative poverty and 150,000 fewer children in absolute poverty.

# Five million customers on pre-paid meters should get a "better deal". Energy companies should spend £150m on social tariffs.

# £17 more a week for poor families with one child.

# A family with two children earning up to £28,000 a year will be £130 a year better off. A further £125m to be spent over the next three years to help families.

SAVINGS

# The government will launch the "savings gateway" nationally with the first accounts available by 2010.

# Cash ISA limit confirmed as £3,600 a year from April.

ECONOMY

# Turbulence in global financial markets, starting in the US, has spread across the world - and this poses a major risk to the world economy.

# The British economy will continue to grow. "This Budget is about equipping Britain for the times ahead...about building a fairer society," Mr Darling said.

# Britain is more resilient and more prepared to deal with global shocks.

# The UK's GDP per head has gone from the lowest in the G7 in the 1990s to second highest now.

# The British economy will this year grow from between 1.75% and 2.25%, down from 3% last year.

# "There will be no return to the inflation rates of the early 1990s," Mr Darling said.

# To provide certainty, the chancellor said he is writing to the governor of the Bank of England to keep a 2% target on inflation.

# Borrowing next year will rise to £43bn, some 2.9% of national income. It will fall to 1.3% by 2012/13.

# By 2011, investment will have increased by 500%, trebling as a share of national income.

# Public spending in the coming three years will grow by 2.2% a year.

ARMED FORCES

# an extra £2bn will be spent on troops in the frontline, including £900m on military equipment.

PUBLIC SERVICES

# Spending on government departments must be matched by reform.

# The focus for the next decade on the NHS will be creating "world-class services".

NON DOMICILES

# The government welcomes the contribution made by people from outside the UK. But non domiciled families should pay a "reasonable charge" after seven years.

[flumpsfriend]

:o

That's all detailed here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7291841.stm

[chatman]

:o

That's all detailed here

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7291841.stm

I know I cut and pasted it from there :) :)

[Moffmo]

Its about time they stopped plastic bags :)

[Boro Sera]

# Spending on government departments must be matched by reform.

We'll put that one with the 'of course you can have a referendum' promise !

[Jinxed]

# Child poverty must be eradicated in Britain. Total of 600,000 fewer children in relative poverty and 150,000 fewer children in absolute poverty.

I take it theyre going to increase this along with everything else?

If theyre actually going to reduce it can I suggest making a new category of impoverished children... say the 'super impoverished' in which they can include every child and then decide that actually theyre not suitable in that category thereby making it so they have sorted out the really really impoverished children, by recategorisation, to exactly where they were before.

Bunch of thieves....

[wullieboy]

# Child poverty must be eradicated in Britain. Total of 600,000 fewer children in relative poverty and 150,000 fewer children in absolute poverty.

I take it theyre going to increase this along with everything else?

If theyre actually going to reduce it can I suggest making a new category of impoverished children... say the 'super impoverished' in which they can include every child and then decide that actually theyre not suitable in that category thereby making it so they have sorted out the really really impoverished children, by recategorisation, to exactly where they were before.

Bunch of thieves....

based on an honest opinion from my self yes iam a smoker and i personaly think that the goverment are taking the mick, all they care about at the end of the tax year is there wages i say stop the war the war thats going on bring our uk troops back and keep them here reduce fuel prices back to 87.9p a litre(wishfull thinking) and keep the prices at a a set rate for the year i dont know how any one else feels about this but i am not a happy chappy. Normally i could put a tenner in ma car and that would do me for 2 maybe 3 days but now a tenner is only lasting a day and a half u get what maybe 9.56 litres to a tenner its just out madness how the the uk is the highest payed taxted country i dont know about anyone else but the nearest fuel station is charging 107.9 for petrol diesel is curently sitting at 110.9 a litre.

[Red Yaris 54]

# Child poverty must be eradicated in Britain. Total of 600,000 fewer children in relative poverty and 150,000 fewer children in absolute poverty.

I take it theyre going to increase this along with everything else?

If theyre actually going to reduce it can I suggest making a new category of impoverished children... say the 'super impoverished' in which they can include every child and then decide that actually theyre not suitable in that category thereby making it so they have sorted out the really really impoverished children, by recategorisation, to exactly where they were before.

Bunch of thieves....

based on an honest opinion from my self yes iam a smoker and i personaly think that the goverment are taking the mick, all they care about at the end of the tax year is there wages i say stop the war the war thats going on bring our uk troops back and keep them here reduce fuel prices back to 87.9p a litre(wishfull thinking) and keep the prices at a a set rate for the year i dont know how any one else feels about this but i am not a happy chappy. Normally i could put a tenner in ma car and that would do me for 2 maybe 3 days but now a tenner is only lasting a day and a half u get what maybe 9.56 litres to a tenner its just out madness how the the uk is the highest payed taxted country i dont know about anyone else but the nearest fuel station is charging 107.9 for petrol diesel is curently sitting at 110.9 a litre.

There is a separate thread for complaining about fuel prices.

Please try to keep your posts on topic.............(Todays Budget)

[Demonic Angel]

As much as I think Mr Darlings (I can't seem to get Blackadder out of my head when I hear the name Darling) budget sucks majorly, I am impressed that they're not only making tax for cars like the Aygo free for the 1st year but also reducing the tax to £20 a year from 2009...

I know most folk thought I was off my trolley to buy one but its certainly paying dividends and I expect to see a few more of them on the road now for certain....

[PaulT]

# The British economy will this year grow from between 1.75% and 2.25%, down from 3% last year.

# Borrowing next year will rise to £43bn, some 2.9% of national income. It will fall to 1.3% by 2012/13.

Whilst individually we may be better or worse off in specifics, these are the most annoying announcements for me. As usual, the government is borrowing now on inflated expectations of future growth in order to give us all a big problem 5-10 years down the line, when they will no longer be in power.

Cowboys.

Paul.

[Boro Sera]

If I had my way they would NEVER have been in power. Throughout history all they have ever done is overtax and then p*** all the money away to no gain ! Rank Amateurs !

[Jinxed]

wait until they get rf chips in operation for us all.... we are all so screwed that day.

[Johndcfc]

Fackin ell, my road tax is gonna be £440 next year :(

It's not gonna make me change my car though, I refuse to be dictated to by morons in government - will just have to work a bit harder.

The only green motivation in the new taxes is the green of the money that they'll just hand out to dole dosser's who will in turn just spend it on booze and !Removed! :censor: either that or another IT project that'll turn out rubbish.

[Chris81]

Glad to see a thread about yesterdays budget announcement. Surely the overhaul on car tax is one of the most shocking things. A run down of the changes is described here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/629/629/7293011.stm

I believe my Yaris T-sport puts out 164g/km of CO2, and so 12 months car tax is £145 at the moment, and will rise to £175 under the new system. When I bought the car at the end of 2006 it cost me £125 for 12 months tax, so the government has grabbed a 40% price hike in about 3 years. Cheers Labour!

And that's just the start. The new 'forecourt' or 'showroom' tax as it's being called could mean that you'll pay up to £950 extra tax when buying a new car. That was for a 'gas guzzling' 4x4 but even the family favourite 2 litre ford focus would be subject to £425 for the first year. (as an aside, surely this will push up second hand car prices??) And all this is done under the banner of the !Removed! 'environment'. Does anybody genuinely think that charging such ludicrous prices on car tax is going to save the planet? Why there is a national obsession in this country about the environment is beyond me. Will fleecing the British population have any real effect on the environment? Of course it won't. The major contributors of China and USA couldn't really care about the environment and rightly so. I really don't know what's happenned to our once great nation but we've all turned into tree-huggers and eco warriors. Are we all supposed to drive 1 litre cars to 'do our bit' whilst other industrial nations churn out more carbon dioxide per second in manufacturing than our cars would churn out in their lifetime? We'll all be going round on horses next and walking everywhere. Or more likely we'll lie down and pay whatever the government asks for the privilege of owning a car with even a tiny bit of performance. Absolute madness.

And don't even get me started on fuel duty or even price hikes on booze. Isn't the Labour party supposed to be for the working man? Because this budget will hit the working classes most. The average bloke with the average car earning the average wage who likes a pint after an honest weeks work. I really don't know what the answer is to all this, short of leaving the country but why the hell should we? I'm proud to be British and really do love this country but there's only so much we as a nation can take.