Brown to unveil Pre-Budget Report

Thursday, 2 December 2004 12:00 AM

Chancellor Gordon Brown will today deliver his much anticipated Pre-Budget Report.

Due to stand up in the Commons at 12.30GMT, Mr Brown is expected to repeat the traditional New Labour refrains of stability and growth - whilst also unveiling some new policies.

Heavily tipped are plans to change childcare provision, with paid maternity leave likely to be extended from six months to a year and possibly shared between parents. There are also suggestions that universal childcare may be mooted.

The Chancellor is also expected to scrap the planned 1.92p-a-litre fuel hike for 2004-05 and include measures to curb corporate tax avoidance.

Other topics likely to come up include reform of the civil service, pensions and possibly personal and local taxation.

He is also likely to reject claims that there is a 'black hole' in the public finances' or that he will have to break his 'golden rule' of only borrowing to invest over the course of an economic cycle.

With the general election widely expected in spring 2005, the Pre-Budget Report is also being viewed as a mini election manifesto.

In a speech at the Institute of Directors in London on Tuesday, Mr Brown said he would outline a "patriotic vision" of Britain's future in the report.

The country's "success and destiny" was reliant on economic and political stability, openness to the world, scientific creativity and world class universities, he said.

Britain in the future needed to be outward looking, internationalist and Pro-European, the Chancellor added.

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