What was your response to the Budget? We asked readers on social media what the most important decisions were for them.
For Peter Curnow-Ford it was the stamp duty cut:
The chancellor abolished stamp duty on shares quoted on Aim – adding to the already substantial tax breaks available to investors in the junior market.
Jordan Burnard felt it was the boost to infrastructure spending:
Infrastructure spending will go up – but not yet. George Osborne promised to boost spending plans by £3bn a year from 2015/2016.
Twitter and Facebook saw much discussion of the “Help to Buy” property programme.
Here’s Constantine Buhayer, via Facebook:
They want to boost the housing market rather than housing affordability and fair rents. This spells disaster for house prices since they will become even more unaffordable and establish deep divisions in our fragmenting society.
The chancellor announced “Help to Buy”, a large scheme to underpin the housing market, with the government offering to take an interest-free 20 per cent stake in newly built homes.
For Stuart Reynolds the most important decision was on monetary policy:
George Osborne unveiled a review of the Bank of England’s remit to see whether it should be expanded to include growth under Mark Carney, who becomes governor in July.
And finally, there was at least one bonus for Pedro Wingate, as he told us on Facebook:
Being a student, it’s definitely the reduction in beer compared to the proposed increase!
Duty on a pint of beer has been cut – and the chancellor scrapped the previously planned above-inflation duty increases on the drink.
Want to know more? Here are the highlights of the Budget – and here’s the speech in full, plus the Treasury documents.
There’s also the FT’s comment and analysis on the Budget:
- Five ways for Osborne to fix the national joke – Tim Harford
- Osborne opts for plan A-plus – Gavyn Davies
- George Osborne pitches for middle Britain, not growth – Janan Ganesh
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey