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22 March 2006
The Budget Key
Points
Will
the budget damage your gambling fund? We list the key points
from Chancellor Gordon Brown's 10th Budget.
Drink &
Tobacco
Duty on cigarettes will
rise 9p.
Tax rises 4p on wine and
1p on beer in line with inflation.
Duty on spirits, sparkling
wine and cider is frozen.
Education
Further education would be
free of charge for the first time up to the age of 25, with
adult learning grants to help with the cost of
living.
Resources would be
redirected from "failing" college courses to the ones which
employers wanted to see.
Mr Brown said in the long
term he wanted to raise the amount of capital funds for each
state school pupil to the level seen in private schools now
- £8,000.
Over five years,
investment in schools would rise from £5.6bn now to
£8bn a year.
£30bn of government
assets, including the Tote, would be sold off.
Sport
There would be £600m
available to fund world-class British athletes.
There would be an annual
schools Olympics, held in a different city every year until
2012.
There would be a new
national sports foundation, with £34m from the
government and other funding from private
companies.
There would be another
£2m for evening sports clubs for young people in a
scheme run by police, Premier League football clubs and
community groups.
Environment
Mr Brown said he rejected
calls for the abolition of the climate change levy and
instead would index the charge in line with inflation from
2007 to cut CO2 emissions further.
He would propose a World
Bank scheme to help developed economies to invest in new
forms of energy in developing nations.
A new £1bn energy and
environmental research institute was being set up, funded by
government and private industry.
To make homes more
environmentally friendly, Mr Brown promised new incentives
for piloting "smart metering" and a new labelling scheme for
energy efficient goods to make homes greener.
A quarter of a million
extra homes would be insulated over the next two
years.
Cars with the lowest rate
of emissions would pay no vehicle excise duty but the 1% of
most polluting cars would pay £210.
Mr Brown postponed the
usual annual inflation increase in fuel duty until 1
September, 2006.
Families
The personal tax allowance
would rise from £4,895 to £5,035.
The child element of the
child tax credit to rise by 14% over the next few
years.
Child Trust Funds to get
an extra £250, or £750 when the children reached
seven-years-old.
Child care vouchers to
increase by £5 a week by £55.
Property
He said 160,000 new homes
had been built in the last year.
Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott would give details of plans for £970m for
shared equity schemes to help 35,000 people get onto the
housing ladder.
The exemption on stamp
duty would be raised to £125,000 and the level at which
inheritance tax begins to be paid would rise to from
£275,000 to £325,000.
Defence
Funds would go to a
memorial for the victims of the 7
July bombings in
London and £1m would go to Britons injured in terrorist
attacks at home and abroad.
There would be £200m
extra given to promote international peacekeeping and an
extra £800m for the armed forces.
There were now 170,000
more people in work than there were at the time of last
year's Budget.
Mr Brown promised to
double training for women with low skills and addressing pay
discrimination.
Innovation
Mr Brown promised a
comprehensive programme for recruiting and retaining staff,
including signing up 3,000 science teachers and funding
after-school science clubs in 250 schools.
Productivity was growing
2.3% - higher than at any time since the 1960s - said Mr
Brown.
Mr Brown said he was
extending the research and development tax credit by
doubling from 250 to 500 employees the size of companies
able to claim higher credit.
There would be new summer
schools for entrepreneurs.
The first £6bn in
government efficiency savings had now been made, with cuts
in civil service posts, said Mr Brown.
Crime &
Transport
By April next year, the
number of community support officers will more than double
from 6,000 to 16,000.
There will be free
off-peak national bus travel for pensioners and disabled
people from April 2008.
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