Point-by-Point: CSR and Pre-Budget report
- Building on the £20 billion already achieved, departments will save a further £30 billion by 2010. This is money available for reinvestment in public services.
- Departmental spending will rise from £345 billion this year to £397 billion in 2010.
Defence
- An additional £400 million allocated for operations this year.
- This on top of the increase in the defence budget to £37 billion by 2010.
- This will provide over £500 million worth of investment for improvements in accommodation for members of the armed forces and their families.
Foreign Office
- The Foreign Office budget, including spending £460 million in 2010 on the British Council, the BBC World Service, and the launch of BBC Farsi and Arabic TV channels.
Home Office
- A new single budget for security that brings together the work of the police, the security services and all parts of the government responsible for addressing the threat from terrorism.
- Funding for intelligence agencies will rise to £3.5 billion a year in three year’s time.
- This includes £700 million over the next three years for the Home Office for its work in combating the terrorist threat.
- Additional resources to the Home Office and Ministry of Justice that will now rise to £20 billion by 2010, to guarantee neighbourhood policing in every community, build 9,500 extra prison places and finance over £400 million in technology to strengthen our border security.
Skills and Innovation
- Investment in science and university research will rise to over £6 billion a year in three years time.
- Will expand the single fund for health research to £1.7 billion by 2010.
Transport
- By 2010 investment will rise to £14.5 billion a year, including;
– extra money for strategic road schemes, like the M1 and M25 widening
– £1.3 billion a year for improving local and regional transport across the country
– doubling the amount spent over the next two years on upgrading the national rail network
– construction of Crossrail
Business
- The main rate of corporation tax will be cut from 30 pence in the pound to 28 pence next year.
- From next year capital gains tax will be just one rate of 18 per cent.
- The chancellor will consult on charging non-domiciled taxpayers, with a view to consider introducing a charge after seven years, then a higher rate after ten.
Environment
- Budget for DEFRA increased to £4 billion in three years to help tackle climate change and protect the countryside.
- This includes provision of £800 million a year by 2010 for flood defences.
- The climate change levy will rise in line with inflation next April.
- Push for European-wide agreement to a lower rate of VAT, in Britain of five per cent, for the most energy efficient products.
- Publishing an interim report by Professor Julia King, which shows by choosing the most efficient cars on the market today drivers can cut emissions and their fuel bills by up to quarter.
- Aircraft emissions should be part of the EU emissions trading scheme.
- From 2009, the government will levy the duty not on individual passengers but on flights, to encourager more efficient use of planes.
- A new Environmental Transformation Fund will have a three year budget of £1.2 billion, which will provide investment in new energy technologies, and resources to meet our obligation to support poverty reduction in the poorest countries through environmental protection.
International Development
- Overseas aid will rise from £5 billion to £9 billion by 2010.
- Reaffirmed commitment to double multilateral and bilateral aid to Africa from 2004 to 2010.
Child Poverty
- Doubling the amount of child maintenance a family can receive without affecting their family benefits to £20 a week next year and then £40 a week in 2010.
- Increasing the child tax credit by a total of £175 a year from next April, with a further increase in 2010 – so that for families on low incomes, children’s benefits and tax credits will be worth at least £3,500 a year for the first child.
Pensions
- The Pension Credit for older people with just a small pension of their own will rise be £5 a week from next April – £260 per year – for a single person; and by £7.65 per week and £397 per year for a couple – guaranteeing every person over 60 at least £6,450 a year.
- The start date for flat rating the State Second Pension will be brought forward to 2009.
- Direct funding for social care will increase to £1.4 billion by 2010 to provide new homes for older people and people with disabilities.
- An extra £200 million will be given next year to deliver to guarantee free off-peak national bus travel for pensioners across England and Wales.
Housing
- The level of new house building will rise to 240,000 a year by 2016. In total an extra 3 million new homes between now and 2020.
- Over £4 billion will be spend over the next three years to help people living in poor quality housing make renovations to their homes.
- The government will aim to increase the supply of housing to help first-time buyers enter the market.
- Grants to local authorities for local services in England will increase to £26 billion by 2010.
- We have provided sufficient resources to ensure local authorities can keep overall council tax rises substantially below 5 per cent.
Culture, Media and Sport
- Budget will increase to £2.2 billion in three years time to guarantee funding for the arts, free access to museums and five hours of sport a week for every child.
Inheritence Tax
- The total amount of untaxed inheritance for married couples and civil partnerships will be raised from £300,000 to £600,000.
- By 2010, the combined tax free allowance for couples will rise to £700,000.
- Civil partnerships to earn the same rights as married couples.
Education
- A quarter of a billion pound fund to ensure all children at school are ready to learn and benefit from personalised support.
Health
- Over the next three years investment will rise by four per cent above inflation.
- Investment in health in England will rise from £90 billion this year to a total of £110 billion in 2010.
