Budget 2015: as it happens

Posted on 18 Mar 2015 by Jonny Williamson

The Manufacturer provides extensive coverage of this year’s budget from Chancellor George Osborne. Refresh your browser for the latest updates.

Response from Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband:

1:34 “This is a budget that no-one will believe, from a government that no-one trusts and isn’t on their side.”

1:35 “People are earning less at the end of this Parliament than they were at the beginning, people are in fact £1,600 worse off a year.”

Chancellor George Osborne:

1:25 “The personal tax free allowance is to increase to £10,800 next year and then £11,000 the year after next, a tax cut for 27m people.”

1:22 “The fuel duty increase scheduled for September has been cancelled, resulting in the longest duty freeze in more than 20 years.”

1:20 “These oil measures amount to £1.3bn of support for the industry. The OBR’s assessment is that it will boost expected North Sea oil production by 15% by the end of the decade.”

1:18 “From the start of next month there will be a single, simple and generous tax allowance to stimulate investment at all stages of the industry.”There will be new seismic surveys in under-explored areas of the UK Continental Shelf, and from next year, the Petroleum Revenue Tax will be cut from 50% to 35% to support continued production in older fields.”

1:16 “We are committing today to supplying ultra-fast broadband of at least 100mbps to every home in the country.”

1:14 “We have now reached a provisional agreement to allow Greater Manchester to keep 100% of the additional growth in local business rates as we build up the Northern Powerhouse.”

1:13 “£100m is to be put aside to accelerate and stay ahead in our race to driverless technology.”

1:12 “We are making the West Midlands the engine of manufacturing with £60m investment in an Energy Research Accelerator, as well as a new energy catapult that we can confirm will be based in Birmingham.”

1:08 “The rate of the bank levy is being raised to 0.21%, raising an additional £900m a year. Banks will also be stopped from deducting from corporation tax the compensation they make to customers for products they have been mis-sold, like PPI insurance. The banks got support going into the crisis; now they must support the whole country as we recover from the crisis.”

1:04 “The top 1% of taxpayers will have to pay 27% of total income tax in 2015, up from 25% in 2010. That is higher than in any one of the 13 years of the last government.”

1:01 “I said we would all be in this together and here is the proof. Compared to five years ago, inequality is lower, youth unemployment is down, the gender pay gap has never been smaller, and zero hours contracts regulated.”

1:00 “We understand that if you back enterprise, you gain more revenue.”

12:57 “National debt as a share of GDP is now falling, and it will only continue falling by sticking to the path laid out in this budget.”

12:56 “The squeeze on public spending to end a year earlier, and public spending will increase in 2019/20 in line with economy.”

12:54 “Debt as a share of GDP falls from 80.4% in 2014-15; to 80.2% in the year 2015-16. And it keeps falling to 79.8% in 2016-17; then down to 77.8% the following year, to 74.8% in 2018-19 before it reaches 71.6% in 2019-20.”

12:52 “We will also use this opportunity to lock in the historically low interest rates for the long term.”

12:49 “It’s the oldest rule of economic policy. It’s the lowest paid who suffer most when the economy fails and it’s the lowest paid who benefit when you turn that economy around.”

12:47 “OBR revised inflation to just 0.2%, and also down for the next three years.”

12:46 “Our economy is no longer in crisis, but is growing and creating jobs.”

12:44 “We are getting the whole of Britain back to work. People are better off after this Parliament. Real disposable income per capita will be higher in 2015 than in 2010, according to the latest OBR data, with strong growth projected for the rest of the decade.”

12:43 “Our long term plan is based on the premise that if you  provide economic stability, you will create jobs. Under this Government, more than 1,000 new jobs have been created everyday. 80% are full-time, 80% are skilled, many are in the North West, the North East and Yorkshire, not just London.”

12:43 “Over the past year, the North grew faster than the South.”

12:42 “Britain’s job numbers are higher than they ever have been before.”

12:41 “Growth is broadly based. Since 2010, Britain’s manufacturing output has grown more than four-and-a-half times faster than it did in the entire previous decade.”

12:40 “The OBR hasn’t revised down Britain’s forecast projections, they have revised them up.”

12:39 “The fall in oil price is positive news for the global economy.”

12:38 “The British economy is fundamentally stronger than it was five years ago. At 2.6%, Britain grew faster than any other major economic nation in the world last year.”

12:37 “We choose economic security, we choose jobs, we choose the whole nation,we choose responsibility, we choose aspiration and we choose families.”

12:36 “The critical choice facing the country is this, do we return to the chaos in the past, or do we continue with the plan that is working. No short-term give-away can ever offer as much as a long-term plan that is capable of delivering.”

12:35 “More people have jobs in Britain than ever before. The latest projections show that living standards will be better than when we came into office.”

12:33 “Today I report on a Britain that is growing, creating jobs and leading the way. Britain is walking tall again.”