The difference in your pocket

Brown's Britain

Motorist is back in the driving seat
A £280m package of road spending and public transport measures, with the emphasis on road building, is to be announced by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, later this week.

Elderly win an income guarantee
Thanks to the already announced 1p cut in the basic rate of tax to 22p from this April and the inflation-linked increases in personal tax allowances, most people will be better off, despite the abolition of the married couples' allowance which took away £197 a year from married taxpayers.

The e-economy

Help for the frontier-free industry
The government yesterday moved to plug the shortage of highly skilled IT workers in Britain by announcing a relaxation on work restrictions constraining firms from hiring foreigners.

Reaction

And a big hand from e-business
John Cassy: Gordon Brown, the suited son of a Scottish Presbyterian minster and now pushing 50, is an unlikely friend of the T-shirt-wearing e-entrepreneurs making their millions in the converted lofts of London.

Prudence and the health service pep pill
Larry Elliott: The chancellor laid down his familiar rhythm section - prudence, discipline, no return to boom and bust - in characteristic breakneck style, then added some of his favourite riffs in the form of tax breaks for enterprise and measures against child poverty. It was all very worthy, but just a little dull, a workmanlike budget but no Sgt Pepper, no Blonde on Blonde.

Prudent, punchy but watch out for potholes
Dr Gerard Lyons, global head of treasury research at Standard Chartered Bank, gives the city's reaction to the Budget

Details

Fourth rise in stamp duty this parliament
The chancellor attempted to take the heat out of the booming housing market by announcing the fourth increase in stamp duty since Labour came to power.

Long-term unemployed benefit
The government plans to tackle the problem of the older long-term unemployed by offering them a version of the New Deal package that has found work for 185,000 young people over the past two years.

Some lose in drive to ease child poverty
The government's drive to eliminate child poverty took a step forward with a raft of budget measures to help low-income families both in and out of work.

Brown shies from talking tampons over VAT

Amnesties and penalties tackle hidden economy

Cigarettes to cost more than £4 as smuggling fears brushed aside

Crackdown on trusts and offshore accounts

New Isa limits to benefit millions

Environment - On aggregate, it is bad news

Snub for charity reform campaigners

£1bn fund to combat regional inequality

£285m boost for fight against crime

The chancellor's arithmetic