16/03/2016 BBC News at Ten

in Cheltenham three years after a hard problem threatened to end his

racing days. -- after a heart problem.

Against a backdrop of slowing economic growth, falling

productivity and weaker public finances the Chancellor,

George Osborne, has delivered his eighth Budget.

He unveiled a series of giveaways to small firms,

And he produced an eye-catching measure - to tackle levels

of obesity among children and young people.

But the big picture was dominated by the latest forecasts on economic

But Mr Osborne says Britain is still ahead of other major economies.

There were changes on personal taxes.

From next April people will start paying income tax

And that eye-catching measure - a new levy on sugary drinks,

expected to raise around ?500 million a year.

More on that in a moment, but first our political editor

Laura Kuenssberg reports on the Budget speech.

REPORTER: Where the sunshine, Chancellor?

Hold your nose, the contents of the box say we are all less well off

than we thought. Hold your nose, he has decided to keep cutting spending

four years to come. Hold your nose, the son that he

promised is absolutely behind the clouds. The Chancellor of the

Exchequer. Financial markets are turbulent,

productivity growth across the West is too low, and the outlook for the

global economy is weak. It makes for a dangerous cocktail of risks.

The economy is in better shape than rivals but growth is slowing down,

so the Government will borrow billions more than planned. By 2020,

to stick to George Osborne's rule, the books should be back in the

black in surplus. Not everyone believes he will head

that political target but his back ventures were happy to cheer it

today. But, listen... Five-year-old

children are consuming their body weight in sugar every year. MPs

shushed each other and grew quieter and quieter. To hear Mr Osborne's

big surprise. I'm not prepared to look back at my time in this

Parliament, doing this job and say to my children's generation, I'm

sorry, we knew there was a problem with sugary drinks, we knew it cause

disease but we ducked the difficult visions and did nothing. So today I

will announce that we will introduce a new sugar levy on the soft rings

industry. One of the country's best-known campaigners for the sugar

tax bed to Westminster. Jamie Oliver, delighted, could scarcely

believe it. I am happy. In terms of the visuals any Chancellor would

want, this counts as a result. But the sugar tax should not distract

from bold redrawing in this budget, a totally new kind of saving for

old-age, big changes to business taxes and a freeze on fuel duty. As

ever, it is only when the Budget gets picked over, that the big

picture becomes clear. There are big changes to tax and

spend. ?3.5 billion of extra costs, lower Corporation Tax business

profits and, by the next election, high income tax thresholds so

millions of workers pay less tax. That is one way to please those

grumpy Tory MPs. A typical basic rate tax payer will pay over ?1000

less income tax than when we came into Government five years ago, and

another 1.3 million of the lowest paid are out of tax altogether.

Social justice delivered by Conservative means.

The vice he needs those supportive voices, because right now the Tories

are vying with each other to get you on their side in the referendum. And

some are peeved because he used evidence from the neutral Office for

Budget Responsibility to back his case for staying in. Britain will be

stronger, safer and better off inside a reformed EU, and I believe

we should not put at risk all the hard work done by the British people

to make the economy strong again. There it was, his main claim, that

as Chancellor he truly has the whole country's interest that hard. This

Budget gets investors investing, savers saving, businesses doing

business so that we build for working people a low tax enterprise

Britain, secure at home, strong in the world, I commend to the House a

Budget that puts the next-generation first. A total -- in total contrast

to the colleagues' congratulations, the Labour leader was having none of

it. Failed on the Budget, debt, investment, productivity, trade

deficit, the welfare cup, failed to tackle inequality in this country.

Flagging the most sensitive and biggest cut of all, lower payments

to some people with disabilities, accusing Mr Osborne of trying to

balance the books on the backs of the most vulnerable. Half a million

people with disabilities are losing over ?1 billion in personal

independence payment, Corporation Tax has been cut and billions handed

out in tax cuts to the very wealthy. There were plenty of other

opposition politicians queueing up to condemn the Budget. What it

really does is confirm the failure of George Osborne. Deficit,

borrowing, everything pushed back, the so-called long-term plan was

not, abject failure from start to finish. In many ways, the Chancellor

is making it more likely we will have another recession, rather than

giving the resilience that we need for the long-term. Less than six

months ago, George Osborne was lucky with the numbers. But luck is on the

way out. But his carefully crafted ambitions, don't doubt there are

plenty of them still hanging around. As we heard, the prospects

for economic growth are rather less encouraging than they were

just a few months ago. Mr Osborne in effect blamed

the global economic situation for the changed forecasts on growth,

debt and productivity, and he warned of 'storm

clouds gathering again'. Our economics editor Kamal Ahmed

is here with his take Thanks. Today the Chancellor had a

tricky hand to play than he expected four short months ago. He disguised

some of it with eye-catching policy announcements like the sugar tax,

that he knows that the economic fundamentals are looking less

healthy. And that there is one major reason for that, it is about the way

we work. George Osborne likes to talk about a

cocktail of dangers facing Britain. A cooling global economy, a slowdown

in China, throw in a collapse in the oil price and it can seem a toxic

mix. The effect, economic growth is slowing. Last year the forecasted

growth rate was 2.4%. That number was downgraded to date to 2%. The

Government's economic watchdog put that largely down to the issue of

productivity, the amount of output each worker produces per hour. If

that is not going up as fast as hoped, earnings will not go up as

fast as hoped, the economy will not grow as fast, tax revenues will not

come in. That is the big change and what we ought to be talking about

more than anything, it really, really matters not just for the

Chancellor but for how well off we all are. How does the Chancellor

proposed to deal with the problem of lower growth and still produce a

Budget surplus by 2020, a fiscal rule committee claims, he won't

break. This graph shows the Government will borrow more over the

next four years. With that amount of borrowing higher than expected and

falling more slowly. That borrowing figure, the Treasury predicts, will

still turn despite all the economic gloom into a ?10.4 billion surplus

the following year, just in time for the election. Reaching the target

will be harder given that Mr Osborne NL 's and giveaways, and they cost

money. Here are some of the biggest ones, increasing the income tax

thresholds, except in Scotland, will cost ?2.5 billion. Cutting small

business rates will cost ?1.4 billion.

Giveaways to begin with and takeaways in 2019/20 and the years

after, those are the years for which the Government has the target to

achieve a budget surplus. We really have quite a big squeeze taking

place in 2019/28 cell. Now that big squeeze is how Mr

Osborne proposes to hit that surplus by 2020, introducing a raft of

revenue raising measures. He proposes to find ?3.5 billion in

efficiency savings from Government departments and disability benefits

cuts will save another ?1.3 billion. And then there is a very big ticket

item, the majority of corporation tax changes will kick in that year,

leaving larger businesses with a tax bill of ?7.9 billion.

That is quite a cocktail, and the financial watchdog says there is

only a 55% chance of the Treasury even hitting the target.

Last year George Osborne had three rules on the economy, he would cap

the welfare budget, a rule abandoned last year, he would bring down debt

as a share of national income, a rule broken today. He has one left,

producing a Budget surplus by 2020. And it seems he is prepared to tax

more and cut more to achieve that. Even if there was some scepticism

that he will ever get there. Thank you, we will talk to you later,

Kamal Ahmed. The biggest Budget surprise for many

was the Chancellor's decision to impose a new levy

on sugary drinks. There will be two bands -

one for drinks with above 5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres,

including some cordials and flavoured waters,

and a second band for those Most colas will fall

into this category. If the manufacturers pass

on the cost to the consumer it could add between 18 and 24

pence to a litre bottle, as our health editor

Hugh Pym explains. It was a big surprise and it

could hit many people's pockets. Today these shoppers were working

out what the new levy adding possibly 80% to the price of a large

unbranded bottle of cola might It will stop the kids from keeping

on going to the shops, keep on buying all the fizzy

drinks all the time. The cost to the NHS

and the dentist all the time. At the end of the day they're

enjoyable but they are bad, so... Some well-known campaigners

on the issue were hurrying No-one likes tax, right,

but this is a tax for good. This is a tax that will have

ripples across the world. Canada, Australia, New Zealand,

pull your finger out, It is about the balance between

business and society and health. Excluding milk-based sugary drinks

it's likely to be passed The industry argues such a move

is not the way to tackle obesity. I think it's very unfair and ironic

almost that the soft drink manufacturers, who've been

in the vanguard of reformulation, of making their products more widely

available with great choice, should be the ones penalised

through this measure. The Chancellor says the proceeds

will be spent on school It is up to Scotland,

Wales and Northern Ireland how The move comes at a time

of increasing concern about obesity There is already a strain on the NHS

and problems often develop About 10% of four and five-year-olds

in England starting off at school By the age of 10 and 11 that

figure has gone up to 19%. When it comes to adults,

25% are obese. Treating conditions linked

to obesity cost the NHS in England ?5.1 billion in the

last financial year. To put that into perspective,

the cost of treating smoking-related diseases, including lung

cancer, cost ?3.9 billion. All of that came out of a total

health Budget of ?113 billion The levy will raise just

?500 million a year. Even so, the head of NHS England

says it will help improve children's health and he says it's just one

of a series of measures to be It's part of a much broader

comprehensive strategy that we need, but also we'll have to take account

of promotions and advertising Together, we think that these

measures will substantially tackle the problem that we've got

of childhood obesity. Health campaigners hope this

is a game-changing moment, but there's a lot of detail

still to be worked out and there'll be intense debate about how the levy

will be implemented. Today's Budget did contain a wave

of measures aimed at business - giving more help to small firms,

especially on business rates, but asking big companies to make do

without some of the tax breaks that Our business editor Simon Jack has

been looking at the likely impact. The Chancellor served up some good

news for business underdogs today. Small businesses like this cafe in

Sunderland were licking their lips at the prospect of saving real money

from a cut to the burden of business rates. Hundreds of thousands of

small companies in England will pay no business rate, permanently. We

are over the moon, actually, one of the best things I have heard from

the Budget is the increase in small business rate relief which,

hopefully, for a business like ours, will take us out of paying rates

altogether. Some will go toward staff wages, we might take another

apprentice. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and the ?7 million

boost to small business will be paid for by a ?9 billion raid on fat cat.

But until now, big firms and multinationals have been able to

reduce the fat Democrat tax they pay by taking off borrowing costs from

their profits. The amount of profit they can drink this way will be

limited. Some sectors use a lot of debt financing, and this limited

ability to upset the debt interest payments against profits will head

some sectors, like commercial construction, very hard. The British

property Federation warns that it might slow investment. The banks

have used some of their previous big losses, remember them, to minimise

tax bills, which will be further constrained. Will the Chancellor 's

new more aggressive approach to collecting tax work better than his

patchy record? Yes, I think it will. I think by setting in place system

changes it is much easier to see that there is more likely to be

effective than trying to plug the art weird loophole, which is quite

tricky to understand whether people are using it and it is effective.

The financial backdrop, whether you are big or small, has taken a

decidedly gloomy tone. That makes life difficult for all businesses,

just like it has for the Chancellor himself.

Among the other measures announced by the Chancellor today

were investments in infrastructure, especially in road and rail

There's an extra ?700 million for flood defences.

There's a commitment to introduce elected mayors for English counties

And the Chancellor confirmed that all schools in England are to become

academies, taking them out of local authority control.

That is something that we reported yesterday. Just a selection of some

of the other measures in a very densely packed Budget.

Our political editor Laura Kuenssberg is in Downing

When we look at today, Mr Osborne's eight Budget, what was his main

challenge? It shouldn't be a good day at the office for a Chancellor

to leave here, turnip and has comments and say, you know that

economy I have been in charge of the six years, it is not going quite as

well as I hoped, things are looking rather peaky and may take a turn for

the worse. But the mood in number 11 is quite chipper tonight. I think

they believe that they steered the rather fine line between providing

some crowd pleaser is, showing they had some big ideas and, crucially

for any Chancellor, pulling off a big surprise with the sugar tax.

There is already a whiff of rebellion in the air on the Tory

benches over that cuts. Some people see a very punitive and unfair cuts

to some disability payments. There is a whiff of rebellion on the Tory

benches and outrage if you read from the Labour Party and other

opposition parties. George Osborne may have held his nerve today, but

might need white knuckles in the days ahead. The king beyond the days

ahead and beyond, maybe, the all important EU referendum, which was

part of the Budget statement at one point, what are the longer term

goals? The overwhelming backdrop to this is the Government 's desire and

fear, really, that they had to win the European referendum on June 23,

they can't afford to lose that otherwise all their careers, all

bets might be. There is a second part of this, George Osborne fours

only to ship ambitions. For those reasons he did not want to do

anything that would upset his Conservative backbenchers or Middle

England. This was another step along the road in his big medical project,

mailing the Conservative Party to capture those swing voters in the

middle, to truly become, as he would suggest, the party of ordinary

working families. One minister said to me, this was a good Budget for

the middle class, but there are plenty of people who want to stop

George Osborne achieving that goal. Thank you, Laura Kuenssberg.

If you want to find out more about the Budget and how it

affects your financial circumstances, you can use

Enter a few details and it will let you know if you're better

You will see lots of news and analysis, also the calculator. Let's

move on. In America, the frontrunner

for the Republican presidential nomination - Donald Trump -

has warned of riots if he's Mr Trump has strengthened his

position after winning the latest primaries in three states,

but he lost in the key state of Ohio - meaning he could still fall short

of the support he needs. In the Democratic race,

Hillary Clinton extended her substantial lead over rival

Bernie Sanders with wins Our North America editor

Jon Sopel reports. He's young, articulate,

telegenic and Hispanic, but Senator Marco Rubio

is also a loser. Last night the great hope

of the Republican establishment was crushed in his home state

of Florida by the Donald Trump While it is not God's plan that

I be president in 2016, or maybe ever, and while today my

campaign is suspended. The fact that I've even come this

far is evidence of how special Donald Trump made impressive

gains last night. He's now halfway to getting

the number of delegates he needs to win outright and is way

ahead of his main rivals. He's achieved it, not by wooing

the traditional republican base, but by bringing new

support to the party. We have a great opportunity

and the people that are voting are Democrats are coming in,

independence are coming in and very, very importantly, people

that never voted before. Donald Trump has had an emphatic

victory here in Florida. But perhaps the most striking thing

about tonight is what has happened It was to this man, the State

governor, John Kasich, a moderate Republican whose now

vowed to carry on his fight We are going to go all the way

to Cleveland and secure But the path is strew

with more than confetti. John Kasich staying in the race

means the anti-Trump vote is now split between him

and Senator Ted Cruz. What looks certain is that

Donald Trump is going to arrive at the convention with way more

delegates than anyone else, but potentially short

of the majority that he needs. This is where politics

clashes with arithmetic. Arithmetically, yes,

it would be possible for the Republican establishment

to do a stitch-up and put someone else in but, politically,

it would be explosive and Donald Trump has warned

that if that happens, A threat the authorities

are taking seriously. On the Democratic side,

things couldn't have been sweeter If we win in November,

I know our future will be brighter Her path to the nomination seems

less complex and already her advisers are war gaming the next

battle - how to take on Donald Trump, her most likely

Republican opponent. Jon Sopel, BBC News,

Palm Beach, Florida. A brief look at some of the day's

other news stories... A man shot dead by the police

in Brussels yesterday has been identified as an Algerian national

who was in Belgium illegally. The raid was linked

to the investigation into the attacks in Paris that

killed 130 people last November. Police say they found an assault

rifle, the flag of the so-called Islamic State group,

and a book of extremist literature The European naval force targeting

migrant smuggling gangs in the Mediterranean says there's

been a sudden increase in the number of boats crossing

from Libya to Italy. These pictures, given

to the BBC by the Royal Navy, show some of the migrants

rescued earlier today. Hundreds have been rescued

in the past few weeks and many more are expected as the

weather improves. Arsenal have been knocked out of

the Champions League by Barcelona. They'd travelled to the home

of the Spanish Champions - the Nou Camp - needing

to overturn a two-goal deficit. A rainy night in Barcelona. Arsenal

may have wished their opponents had stayed indoors. The defending

champions are a daunting prospect. Unbeaten since October, with one of

the best attacking line-up since history. When this team clicks into

gear, it takes something special to stop them. 2-0 down from the first

leg, Arsenal 's claim would become steeper. Messi, Neymar and Suarez

had combined for 103 goals this season. Their 104th looked easy.

After the break, Arsenal's efforts were rewarded, Mohamed Elneny's

first goal for Arsenal. Their revival was brief, even in the

Champions League, Barcelona play for fun. The Nou Camp is a playground

for Louis Suarez. There was time for them to tie further with Arsenal, as

Messi completed the game. Arsenal's Champions League journey is over,

Barcelona roll onto the quarterfinals.

A last look at the Budget tonight, this time focussing on measures that

could affect families and young people throughout the UK.

On savings, there'll be a new Lifetime ISA,

specifically for the under-40s and the Government will top-up

On duties, the tax on beer, cider and spirits will be frozen.

But tobacco duty will rise by 2% above inflation.

Reeta Chakrabarti has been getting reaction to the measures

at Stockport College in Greater Manchester.

"We are the builders," declared the Chancellor,

and young adults learning the bricklaying trade

17-year-old Harvey is keen to get on.

He's interested in George Osborne's proposed lifetime ISA,

encouraging young people to save by giving them ?1 for every

You've got different types of ISAs you can put your money away in.

So you can start saving up for things that you need in life,

Just building up that money to get you off in life.

I now call the right honourable George Osborne,

He's one of a group the Chancellor repeatedly name checked,

the next generation, the focus of today's Budget

George Osborne's next generation should be in optimistic mood

The north-west of England has, he says, the fastest growing rate

of employment in the country, but it's not that straight-forward.

18-year-old Hayley has been listening to the message too.

She harbours big ambitions, she's training to be a chef

while working part-time and she wants to own her own business.

She likes the idea of being helped to save, but...

The money that I do make, I have to use it for public

transport, also buying food for myself during the week.

At the end of the day, it's a good decision,

but it's how - are you going to start saving, if you don't

have the money to start saving with in the first place?

Dominic Smith used to be a teacher, now he's retraining as a plumber.

For him, raising the threshold at which people pay tax to ?11,500

I think for workers it's a good thing to be able to know that a bit

more of your money you've earnt will go into your own pockets and,

hopefully, boost the economy by spending it the way that

But for car owners and anyone paying insurance, it was a different story.

The tax on premiums will go up by 0.5%, a smaller increase

than expected, but it comes on top of a bigger hike last year.

I'm not happy at all because that does affect me because I'm a car

owner, I'm a homeowner, you know, I have a mortgage to pay.

I'm trying to stand on my own two feet, I have done all my life,

and I do find that slightly frustrating.

Forging a vision for the country that echoes people's personal

ambitions is what Chancellor's attempt on Budget Day.

George Osborne will hope what he's produced is suitably joined up.

Reeta Chakrabarti, BBC News, Stockport.

Some of the views in stock but college. We have talked about the

main measures and the potential impact of some of them, but what

about the policy risks? Just time for a last word

with our economics editor, How do you see those? It has been a

long day, but a significant one, not just a policy risk that a political

risk is the issue of the Budget surplus. The downgrade in economic

growth was more significant than normal downgrades because was based

on failure on the of productivity. Policies to change productivity take

a long time. We're talking about improving skills, encouraging

businesses to invest. That is long-term. Getting that productivity

up and improving economic growth will take a long time. The second

big area of risk for the Chancellor and the Government is this big bet

on 2019 and 2020, when everything will come together, the tax cuts,

the tax rises will comment, the public sector cuts will come in,

meaning he can hit this budget surplus. They are relatively heroic

in terms of what he is trying to achieve in that final year, and if

he does not do that he will fail on his final fiscal rule. He has missed

two, he still has the third, can he hit that target? Thank you for your

final word, Kamal Ahmed. Newsnight is coming up

on BBC Two in a few moments. There were quite a few missed

targets in the Budget today, so we'll be delving

into the excuses. Join me now on BBC Two,

11.00pm in Scotland. Here, on BBC One, it's time

for the news where you are.