Pre-Budget Headlines

In what was described as an "emergency budget" the government is to bring forward £3billion of public spending on infrastructure, schools and housing projects in a bid to use construction to lessen the impact of recession on the country.

In a pre-budget report Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the measure to increase public spending to £682bn by 2010-2011.The measures include:

• Bringing forward spending on secondary and primary schools and transport infrastructure
  A package of measures aimed at helping small businesses including a £1bn temporary small business finance scheme
• £150m will be spent insulating 60,000 homes
• A £1.8bn package of support on housing.

Here is the rest of the Budget headlines:

Fiscal stimulus
• Overall fiscal stimulus package worth £20bn by April 2010

Tax revenue
• Tax revenue from financial sector down 35% this year

Spending
• Spending worth £3bn on capital projects to be brought forward from 2010-11

Efficiency savings
• Government has achieved efficiency savings of £26.5bn – £5bn over target
• Efficiency savings to total £35bn by 2010-11

Borrowing
• Borrowing to rise to £78bn this year, and £118bn next year
• Debt as a proportion of GDP to peak at 57% in 2013-14
• Government to resume borrowing only to invest by 2015-16

Growth
• Output to fall for first two quarters of 2009 before starting to recover
• Growth for 2009 forecast at between -0.75% and -1.25%
• Growth for 2010 forecast at between 1.5% and 2%

Fiscal rules
• Confirmed abandonment of Gordon Brown's "golden rule". Darling said it would be "perverse and damaging" to apply it in current circumstances

Banking
• Review of financial regulation in crown dependencies like the Channel Islands ordered

Tax
• VAT to be cut to 15% from Monday until 2010
• The increase in income tax allowances announced earlier this year to be made permanent. Allowances to be raised, so this will be worth £145 a year to 22 million basic-rate taxpayers
• National insurance to rise by 0.5% on all rates of national insurance from 2011
• Top rate of income tax to rise to 45% on those earning more than £150,000 – the top 1% of earners – from 2011

Bank lending
• Seven UK banks to get funds worth a total of £1bn to make lending to firms easier
• Another £1bn to be available for lending to small businesses through a temporary small-business financing scheme
• Another £1bn available to support businesses through the export credit guarantee department
Air passenger duty
• Air passenger duty to be reformed so that longer journeys are charged more

Energy efficiency
• Another £150m to be made available to fund energy-saving measures
• Government to consider using legislation to force energy companies to pass on savings when oil prices fall

Housing
• Government to seek EU approval for a scheme that would provide guarantees for mortgage-backed securities
• Lenders have agreed to wait three months after homeowners fall into difficulties before seeking repossession
• Limit at which homeowners can apply for help with mortgage payments if they lose their jobs to be raised to mortgages worth £200,000• More than £1bn to be made available to increase funding for social housing

Unemployment
• Gordon Brown to chair a new national employment partnership to help the unemployed find work
• Total package of measures to help the unemployed worth £1.3bn

Drivers
• The introduction of the new VED bands to go ahead, but they will be introduced more gradually
• Next year the maximum increase will be £5
• From 2010 the maximum increase per car will be £30, not up to £90 as planned

Families
• Planned increase in the child element of the children's tax credit to be brought forward
• The planned child benefit increase, from £18.80 per week to £20 per week, will come in from January, not April as planned

Pensioners
• Pensioners to get a one-off payment worth £60, on top of their £10 Christmas bonus, in January