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Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

We have had a memorable Budget and an interesting debate, and I thank all those who have contributed to it over the past four days. The Budget contained personal tax reductions for families and pensioners and to help make work pay, tax simplification and reform to boost businesses, new UK leadership on climate change, and, crucially, additional resources to invest in public services and Britain’s future competitiveness. The package of £2.5 billion worth of reductions in personal taxation to offer more support for families with children, for pensioners and to make work pay, is funded within a broadly fiscally-neutral Budget. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor, at the outset of his speech, made the position clear:"““Let me be absolutely clear…changes that I make today will be broadly neutral for the public finances and overall””. —[Official Report, 21 March 2007; Vol. 458, c. 819.]" The Conservative party did not understand it, but everyone else certainly did.