The Morning After the Pre-Budget Report Before.

If the chancellor had a pound for every negative verdict on his budget plans in this morning's papers, the United Kingdom's finances might be in better shape!

The Times says Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report is the latest instalment in a farcical but unfunny comedy series it dubs 'Carry On Spending'. Whilst The Daily Express reports a 'furious backlash' over an epic election spending splurge.

'Pain postponed' is the view of the Independent front page.

A Guardian editorial suggests the chancellor 'did enough... to secure a few not-entirely-awful headlines'. But that prediction is only really backed up by the Daily Mirror, the front page of which offers in tabloid style: 'Bank you Darling!'

"Some early Christmas cheer"

was delivered, it says, by a tax on bonuses

"bashing the bankers who dragged us to the brink of economic meltdown".

More typically, the Daily Telegraph brands it a 'political survival plan' not an 'economic recovery plan'. The Daily Mail suggests that it was a time for:

"acutely painful and inevitably unpopular measures necessary to pull Britain back
from the brink of bankruptcy".

But the chancellor

"shut his eyes to the reality of our plight"

Amid

"the biggest economic crisis of our lifetimes"

Mr Darling's answer is replacing old boilers, jeers The Sun.

And finally The Daily Star offers its readers 'one silver lining', pointing out that:

"Darling's likely to be unemployed himself by next summer!"

Pre-Budget Report 2009 Summary

A summary of the key announcements in Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report.

TAX

• All national insurance rates to rise by a further 0.5% from April 2011, raising £3bn a year


• VAT to return to 17.5% from 15% from 1 January 2010. No other changes to VAT


• One-off 50% tax on bank bonuses of more than £25,000


• Stamp duty holiday on certain properties to end on 1 January 2010


• Bingo duty to be cut from 22% to 20%

ECONOMIC FORECASTS

• Economy forecast to shrink 4.75% in 2009, worse than 3.5% forecast in April


• Growth of 1%-1.5% expected in 2010 and 3.5% in 2011 and 2012

BORROWING

• 2009 forecast raised by £3bn to £178bn


• Estimated borrowing of £176bn in 2010 and £140bn in 2011, falling to £96bn in 2013


• Budget deficit to be halved by 2013


• Estimated public loss from bank bailouts reduced from £50bn to £10bn

SPENDING

• Total spending in 2010-11 to rise by £31bn.


• No spending review for period after that


• Current spending estimated to fall by 0.8% between 2011-2 and 2014-5

PAY, PENSIONS AND BENEFITS

• Basic state pension will rise by 2.5% in April 2010


• Child and disability benefit to rise by 1.5% in 2010


• Contributions to public sector pensions to be cut by £1bn a year


• All public sector pay settlements to be capped at 1% for two years from 2011

ENVIRONMENT

• £160m investment in low-carbon and renewable projects


• £200m extra investment for Warm Front insulation scheme, helping 65,000 households


• Boiler scrappage scheme for 125,000 households


• Electric cars to be exempt from company car tax for five years


• Tax rebate for installation of wind turbines and solar panels

EMPLOYMENT

• Under-24s to be guaranteed work or training after six months out of work


• Training or education guarantee for 16 and 17-year-old to be extended to 2010

BUSINESS

• New 50p tax on landline phones to pay for superfast broadband


• New 10% tax on income from patents to boost science development


• 1p increase in corporation tax for small firms to be deferred

FAMILIES

• Free school meals to an extra 500,000 low income families