Budget at a glance George Osborne fires the starting gun on the general election campaign ----------------------------------------------- Key points of Chancellor’s speech Taxation: Raise personal allowance to £11,000 in 2016-17. Threshold at which people start paying 40p tax to rise by above inflation from £42,385 to £43,300 Red tape: Annual tax return to be replaced by digital tax account – which can be checked online – by 2020 New personal savings allowance: First £1,000 of savings interest will be tax free for basic-rate payers, £500 for higher-rate payers. Move will take 95% of savers out of tax Pensions: Five million pensioners allowed to access their annuities, with 55% tax charge abolished and tax applied at marginal rate Help to Buy Isa. £200 saved for home deposit will be topped up by £50 Excise duties: Beer duty cut by 1p a pint, duty on cider and whisky cut by 2p. Freeze on wine duties. Fuel duties to be frozen again. No changes on gaming or tobacco duties Northern Powerhouse: Agreements to be made for cities such as Greater Manchester and Cambridge to keep 100% of additional growth in business rates. Cut in road tolls will boost White Van Man Research: More support and loans for PhD students in an attempt to convince people to take up postgraduate research Charities: Increase from £5,000 to £8,000 a year in automatic charity gift aid – cash donations on which charities can claim a gift aid top-up. Increase in fund to repair church and cathedral roofs to £45m Military: £75m of help for servicemen and women. Help for regiments who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan North Sea: Package to cut costs amounting to £1.3bn to combat collapse in crude oil price and save thousands of job losses across industry Public spending: Budget deficit will move into surplus of £23bn by 2019-20, releasing £16bn to cut austerity measures and funds for public services ---------------------------------------------- Osborne picture: Getty Images words 319