wikimaze

13.24: A quick glance at the Red Book and it is clear that this Budget is a virtual non-event fiscally. It will of course raise tax for the Treasury - the net gain by 2009/10 £1.86bn.

The big tax rises? Alcohol taxes raise £500m and taxes on gas guzzling cars will raise £465m from next year.

13.20: Wow, big tax rises on alcohol. Brown famously froze the duty on spirits for ten consecutive budgets – it was assumed to be a nod to the Scottish Malt whisky industry.

This has all changed as the Chancellor acts to tackle the perceived “binge drinking” culture. Beer, wine and spirits are all becoming more expensive, with duties rising 2pc above inflation each year for the next four years.

Beer goes up 4p a pint, 3p a pint for cider, and spirit up 55p for a bottle. He said the money would be used to cut child poverty.

13.13: Here come the green taxes.

There will be plastic bags legislation in 2009 if there is not a voluntary drop in the use of them this year. He said the money raised would goes to charities.

There is £26m to help households reduce their emissions.

From 2009, there will be a major reform of vehicle excise duties to encourage the production of lower emission cars. From April 2010 there will be a new showroom tax based on emissions.

There will be higher taxes on big engine cars and tax breaks given to company car scheme are being altered to encourage wider take up of low emition cars.

13.09: He says long term fixed rate mortgages can take out some of the risks for first time buyers and those on low incomes. But he has not outlined any new proposals.

He is now is giving details about his housing building plans, identifying sites for 70,000 new homes.

13.07: He has promised more investment in transport and housing, but gives few details. Stamp duty on shared ownership homes will not be due until 80pc of the equity is owned.

13.05: Most of the new measures announced so far will not cost the Treasury significant sums.

13.03: The Chancellor has confirmed that non-domiciled residents who have lived in the UK for more than seven years will pay a new £30,000 tax. The devil will be in the detail of the Red Book.

12.56: Business taxes: He confirmed that the new corporation tax rate will be 28pc. The new 18pc rate of capital gains tax will also come in from April 6.

He said an additional £60m would be made available for the small firms loan guarantee scheme. Thresholds on the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Enterprise Management Incentive will also be raised.

There is a new £12.5m fund to encourage more women to set up businesses.

He also set at new target for 30pc of government spending to go to small firms.

Whitehall departments will for the first time have an annual limit to the amount of regulation that they can impose on businesses.

12.53: From October 2009, new measures will be introduced to ensure that parents who chose to work will be better off than on benefits. Mr Darling said this would raise 150,000 more children out of poverty and it forms part of the Government's pledge to eradicated child poverty by 2020. Child benefit will increase by £20 a week from April 2009 - ahead of schedule.

12.47: The Chancellor has said public sector employment has fallen in the last year while private employment has risen "strongly". He said reform of public sector services was not "optional", it was "common sense". Further savings would be made, he promised, alongside improvements in services to deliver "genuinely world class" services.

12.44: The Opposition is quiet even though Mr Darling has said he will exceed his borrowing forecasts next year and has announced new taxes on petrol.

12.40: The Treasury says the public sector will need to borrow less than expected in the pre-Budget report this year but borrowing rises to £43bn in 2008/09. The Chancellor also said that he would postpone the 2p rise in the fuel duty until October. From 2010 an additional half penny will be added to the duty.

12.37: With the economy faltering in the face of the global credit crunch, the Chancellor has scaled back his GDP growth forecasts for this year and next to 1.75pc-2.15pc this year and 2.15-2.75 next year.

The Chancellor has acknowledged that the inflationary pressures on the economy are greater than he anticipated in the October. The CPI rate will exceed the 2pc rate this year but will return to the 2pc target in 2009.

12.33: Head down, the Chancellor is spelling out how "turbulence in international finance markets", originating in the US, has hit the global economy.

12.30: Just like his predecessor, Mr Darling is opening his speech by painting a positive picture of rising employment and investment. He said the core purpose of the Budget was about "stability now and in the future".

12.26: The Chancellor is looking cool and calm as Gordon Brown finishes Prime Minister's questions.

12.20: Alistair Darling is about to deliver his first Budget. We'll be covering the main points here as he makes them.

The parliamentary debate on nationalisation started on Tuesday
The nationalisation of Northern Rock has been enshrined in law, the government has announced.
The order bringing about the transfer to public ownership was made at 2307 GMT on Thursday - one minute after a parliamentary bill gained royal assent.

It means all shares in Northern Rock have been handed over to the Treasury.

The Banking (Special Provisions) Bill was passed in just three days, after the House of Lords backed down over demands for extra safeguards.

It is the first major nationalisation since the 1970s, when about a quarter of British industry, including coalmining, steel, British Leyland cars, British Airways and energy companies, was in public hands.

In 1984, the stricken Johnson Matthey bank was nationalised for just £1 by a Conservative government to prevent a collapse in the price of gold. It was later sold.

Opposition fears

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly told the BBC One's Question Time that Northern Rock would be managed at "arm's length" from the government, and she was confident it would eventually be returned to the private sector.

Opposition critics fear it could remain in public hands for a decade or more until the market conditions are right.

The Conservatives wanted a Bank of England-led reconstruction of Northern Rock, while former Chancellor Lord Lawson said it should have been closed to new business and gradually run down.

There is also concern that many of Northern Rock's highest value mortgages will remain in a private offshore trust, Granite, which the Conservatives say will put taxpayers to the back of the queue when it comes to getting their money back.

But Ms Kelly said she was confident that in time the bank could be sold back to the private sector and "every singe penny" would be returned to the taxpayer with interest.

'Domino effect'

She said Northern Rock had entered difficulties because its business model had "failed completely" in the face of "unprecedented" global turbulence.

She told Question Time: "It was on a completely unsustainable growth path... The first thing we had to do was prevent contagion - the domino effect."

The government rushed through legislation to nationalise Northern Rock in three days, with MPs rejecting peers' calls for the bank to be subject to an independent audit, and for it to come under Freedom of Information laws.

The Conservatives said it was a matter of "deep regret" that ministers had opposed these amendments "out of hand".

And Alan Duncan, shadow secretary of state for business, described nationalisation as "a recipe for continued difficulty".

When asked if Chancellor Alistair Darling should resign, he replied: "Yes, I think in due course he's going to have to."

If peers had not backed down, both Houses could have been kept sitting all night as ministers were determined to get the emergency bill onto the statute book by Friday.

Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable told Question Time there had been a "very expensive delay" in deciding to nationalise, but the government had come "to the right decision in the end".