In his 10th and almost certainly last pre-Budget report to MPs, the chancellor has put the environment and education at the top of his agenda.
Gordon Brown unveiled an autumn statement on the public finances that will see extra cash brought in through green taxes and more money to be spent on capital infrastructure for schools.
On the environment Brown increased standard taxes on flights from £5 to £10.
"From February 1 we will double air passenger duty... securing extra resources for our priorities - transport and the environment," he said.
From midnight petrol taxes will increase in line with inflation, by 1.25 pence per litre.
But Brown said: "I will not reintroduce the fuel duty escalator and I have rejected a real-terms increase in fuel duty."
He announced the goal of making London the leading global centre for carbon trading.
And he pledged that Britain would be the first country to have a target that "in 10 years every new home will be a zero-carbon home", with "nearly every zero-carbon home" being exempt from stamp duty and extra incentives for existing homes to go green.
Schools
Brown said that due to the performance of the economy and by rejecting calls for tax cuts he had found extra money for "essential new investments this country must make in infrastructure and education."
The chancellor argued that the "single most important investment we can make is in education".
Brown said capital investment in schools will be £3.8bn next year and "we will set out long-term plans to allow investment to rise even further".
Total education investment will rise from £1.5bn in 1997 to £10.2bn by 2010 "matching state school investment to private schools as year by year we close the gap".
He also announced an immediate cash increase for head teachers "equivalent to £200 for every pupil".
Brown said this was "money I could use for tax cuts, but I say 'invest in education first'."
He also announced the nationwide roll-out of the "Every child a reader" programme, extra help for secondary school pupils not achieving the minimum standard in literacy and three million new books for primary schools.
Economy
The chancellor said the theme of the statement was "security, prosperity and fairness for all".
On his economic record since 1997 Brown said it had been the "longest period of sustained growth in our history".
And he predicted that after 38 consecutive quarters of economic expansion "growth will continue into its 39th and 40th quarters and beyond".
He announced that growth this year would be 2.75 per cent, higher than he had forecast in his March Budget.
The Treasury estimates that this will rise to between 2.75 and 3.25 per cent next year.
On borrowing Brown boasted that "Britain will meet both its fiscal rules and will meet them in this economic cycle and the next".
"This is the strongest foundation from which to meet the challenges ahead," he declared.
Brown said the principal challenge came from China and India, which needed to be met by skills, science and entrepreneurship, all of which were prioritised.
Strategy
Looking ahead to next year's Scottish and Welsh elections and his own likely premiership, he called this "a British strategy to make the next stage of globalisation work in the British interest".
Following "catch-up investment" in housing and hospitals, more money was now needed for schools and roads in order to develop the economy, he said.
Brown gave his backing to independent reports from economist Kate Barker on fast-tracking the planning process, former Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers on intellectual property, former BA chief executive Rod Eddington on transport infrastructure and Lord Leitch on skills.
In other measures he announced that tax-free ISAs will "continue beyond 2010" and "made permanent" in a bid to encourage savings.
On social policy Brown said that "since 1997 two million children have been taken out of poverty and almost a million people out of relative poverty".
However he announced that more money would be made available to expectant mothers, while benefits for the poorest children would be uprated to £64 per week next April.
And he attacked the Conservatives "third fiscal rule" of sharing the proceeds of growth between tax cuts and spending as meaning an effective £28bn hole in the pubic finances this year.
