Keep track of reaction to the Budget in the media in this rolling update, provided by Dods Monitoring.

BBC Radio Four Today – Friday March 14 2008

Conservatives may find it "difficult" to cut taxes: Osborne

Shadow chancellor George Osborne has acknowledged that a Conservative government may find it difficult to cut taxes if it wins power at the next general election.

Ahead of a speech to the party’s Spring Forum in Gateshead on Friday, he said they may inherit a "huge borrowing problem" after the chancellor's Budget warning that public finances were set to plunge further into the red.

While Osborne said the party had a long-term commitment to try to cut taxes, they would not do anything to jeopardise economic stability.

"I cannot make a promise at the election that there will be a big reduction in the burden or there will be big tax cuts because I may well inherit a situation, if people vote Conservative in the general election, where I have huge borrowing figures to deal with," he told the BBC.

"Already government borrowing next year is £7bn higher than Alistair Darling was predicting just a couple of months ago so we might have a huge borrowing problem.

"It is my ambition to reduce taxes on families and reduce taxes on businesses, but of course the stability of the economy and the soundness of the public finances must come first."

BBC Radio Four Today – Thursday March 13

Darling defends 'stability' budget

The chancellor has defended planned increases in government borrowing and insisted that his Budget would promote stability at a time of economic uncertainty.

Speaking the day after delivering his first budget, Alistair Darling said it was “not surprising” that borrowing was forecast to rise given the so-called global credit crunch.

“When you get this period of uncertainty the right thing to do is to allow your tax policy and your fiscal policy to support the economy; that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

“I am taking a cautious view. I said yesterday, at some length, that we are going through pretty uncertain times, but I believe our projections are in line with what people are saying and most people expect our economy to grow.”

Dismissing criticism of his assumption that Britain would weather the economic turbulence, he said: “You can take a different view - you can take an entirely more pessimistic view; I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.

“I think it is right to continue to take the decisions in the long-term interests of this country and if you look at our position now, it is infinitely better than it was 10 or 15 year ago or even 20 year ago when we had, without labouring the point, the very big recessions.” 

Delaying the fuel duty increase was part of that action, he said.

Asked if he wished he had more room to manoeuvre, he said: “We are where we are; you can only deal with the economy as you find it.”

Darling said the increase on alcohol duty to raise revenue was “a fair and a reasonable thing to do”, pointing to the relative fall in the price of drink over the past decade.

“If you look at the price of a bottle of wine now, it would have cost you more to buy it 10 years ago,” he said.

Conservative plans to raise duty on alcopops to fund tax cuts on other types of alcohol would push young binge drinkers to other types of drink and be in breach of EU laws, the chancellor said.

ePolitix.com Podcast – Wednesday March 12

Cooper defends 'responsible' Budget

In a podcast interview with ePolitix.com, chief secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper has claimed that the Budget was a “responsible” attempt to promote stability at a time of global economic turbulence.

She defended the chancellor’s decision not to backtrack on plans to introduce a charge on wealthy non-dom residents in the UK.

“The position for non-doms is fair and right because it does encourage people to still come to this country, to stay and to work here, but also makes sure they make a fair contribution as well,” Cooper said.

She also rejected accusations that the budget failed to deliver the promised green agenda.

“What the measures that we’ve introduced will do is provide really clear incentives for people to choose greener cars and to make sure that particularly people who are buying new cars, when they go into the showroom, do have an incentive to chose the greenest one available,” she explained.

Cooper insisted that the biggest priority in the budget had been “to put money into families’ pockets”.

BBC Budget 2008 – Wednesday March 12

Renewable energy campaigners disappointed by Budget

The promised green budget turned out to be a “very dark brown”, the chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association said.

Philip Wolfe criticised the chancellor for giving a low priority to the effort to promote renewable energy and said the budget lacked “almost anything” to encourage its use.

“The Treasury themselves commissioned the Stern report back in 2006… we haven’t taken that up and we’re still no further forward in getting off the bottom of the European league table,” Wolfe said.

He said the budget did little to help bring about the “quantum change” in energy policy needed to tackle climate change.

BBC Budget 2008 – Wednesday March 12

Think-tank doubts Darling's predictions

A leading economic think-tank has suggested that the economic predictions in this year’s Budget may be overly optimistic.

Commenting on the measures included in this year’s budget, the director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies said the £2bn net worth of tax increases did little to dent the large increase in public borrowing announced by Alistair Darling.

Robert Chote said: “This is the seventh successive budget in which the government has had to concede that the outlook for the public finances is weaker than they had previously thought and this tightening only reduces that at the margin.”

Chote warned that if the growth rate predicted by Darling was not borne out it would lead to further tightening in the public finances and cast doubt on the tax revenues predicted by the Treasury.

He added: “He’s effectively holding his fingers crossed on two counts; one, that the downturn in the economy is relatively shallow; two, that the hit to the public finances is also shallow and temporary.”

BBC Budget 2008 – Wednesday March 12

Alcohol duty rise unfair say producers

Duty increases on alcohol products will adversely affect a drinks industry already hit by the rising cost of energy and raw materials, a spokesman for the Wine and Spirit Trade Association has claimed.

Gavin Partington also complained that the government was penalising ordinary families already squeezed by rising living costs and pointed out that Britons now faced the highest duty on a glass of wine in Europe.

Partington said: “The fact is that most people in this country - millions of us - enjoy a glass of wine or a glass of spirits at home, in the evening out at a pub and why should we pay this massive hike to the chancellor in this way.

“Ordinary families are going to be punished on alcohol… it’s a very striking increase indeed and we condemn it,” he added.

Dismissing the suggestion that the duty rise was needed to curb binge drinking and alcoholism, Partington said the chancellor had been briefing “behind closed doors” that the measure was not aimed at binge drinkers.

“The chancellor has been making it clear that he doesn’t think this increase in alcohol price is because it is needed to tackle binge drinking.

“We’ve always said price is not the issue, if it was there’d be a problem with binge drinking in France or Spain where duty rates are much lower.”

Partington also criticised the announced price accelerator over coming years, which he claimed pre-empted a government study into the relationship between alcohol price and harmful effects.

Sky News Budget Special – Wednesday March 12

Criticism of fuel poverty plans in Budget

There has been reaction from stakeholders to the announcement in the Budget of an increase in the winter fuel allowance to pensioners.

Jonathan Stern of Energywatch described the chancellor’s move as a “missed opportunity”.

“He should have extended that to disabled people and people with young children – they are also a vulnerable group who are suffering from fuel poverty and not a word about that,” he added.

On Alistair Darling’s call for energy retailers to treble social tariffs, Stern said the government lacked a strategy, adding: “What the chancellor seems to be doing is actually just going cap-in-hand to the suppliers rather than taking the lead.”

Francis Williamson, spokesperson for the Energy Retailers Association, agreed that Darling lacked a coherent fuel poverty strategy but insisted that suppliers wanted to work with government to focus assistance on the most vulnerable.

 She said: “Despite the chancellor’s warm words today we’re yet to see a real, sustainable strategy to tackle fuel poverty and that’s very disappointing.

"We want to work with government to try to sort out the fuel poverty problem that we have but we have to have access to the data of who needs this money and who needs the support the most."

BBC Budget 2008 – Wednesday March 12

We’re happy to bin plastic bags, says supermarket boss

The founder of supermarket delivery group Ocado has said his firm would be “happy” to operate without plastic bags if the government decided to ban their use, as suggested by the chancellor in his Budget.

Jonathan Faiman said: “Our consciences won’t let us give out plastic bags for them to be thrown away, if the government wants to take the lead and ban them overall, which means that all the grocers won’t be able to use them, then we’ll be happy to deliver without plastic bags.”

Faiman also expressed his disappointment at the government’s failure to understand the economic pressures on the business community, saying that confidence in the government would be damaged further.

BBC Budget 2008 – Wednesday March 12

No urgency in budget, says TUC boss

The general secretary of the Trades Union Congress has said the Budget should have shown greater “urgency” in reassuring members of the public “feeling the pinch” in the slowing economy.

Brendan Barber said: “At the moment a lot of people are feeling the pinch, they’re going through tough times, they’re seeing living standards really under threat with wage rises not keeping pace with inflation and there wasn’t a real sense of urgency in giving people a greater sense of security.”

Barber said announcements on child poverty and energy pricing were “positive” but “could have been bolder”.

The trade union leader said he was unconcerned about suggestions that changes to the tax status of so-called non-doms could damage the British economy and called for a greater focus on stamping tax avoidance among individuals and corporations.

“The wealthiest people in this country, and the biggest corporations, are avoiding tax to the tune of £25bn – if we close some of those loopholes think what a difference that would have made to the chancellor’s options,” Barber added.

BBC Radio 4 Budget Special – Wednesday March 12

Politicians react to Darling’s budget debut

In the immediate wake of Alistair Darling’s first budget as chancellor, government and opposition figures have offered early reaction to the announcements.

Former Conservative chancellor Kenneth Clarke said he had “never known a more boring and unimaginative budget” but admitted that fiscal constraints had precluded more dramatic announcements.

Clarke said the “puritanical” increases in alcohol and tobacco duty would “squeeze the consumer further”.

The former chancellor also expressed doubt that Labour would be able to stick to restrictions on public spending in the run up to an election, claiming the government were “just waiting to see something turn up”.

Liberal Democrat frontbencher David Laws said the chancellor had produced “no strategy” to deal with the constrained fiscal circumstances, displaying “a dramatic lack of imagination”.

Laws said that the extra money being spent on child poverty would be “only a third” of what was needed.

But Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband defended the announcements, claiming the money allocated to child poverty would take the government closer to its goal of eradicating child poverty.

Darling's announcement on plastic bag charging would send a “big signal” on the environment, Miliband added.

The former Treasury advisor under Gordon Brown also defended the increase in government borrowing, arguing that Labour had always felt “it was right" to be able to borrow to invest in public services within established fiscal rules.

Government borrowing was only a third of what had been in the early 1990s, Miliband noted.

Sky News – Wednesday March 12

Darling should give families a break in budget: Cameron

Speaking to Sky News this morning, Conservative leader David Cameron called on chancellor Alistair Darling to remember the economic pressures on working families in this afternoon's budget.

"What the chancellor needs to do is recognise that for lots of families in this country, things are quite difficult at the moment, every time they fill up the car it costs more, every time they go on the family shop it costs more," Cameron said.

"If they come out of a fixed-rate mortgage that’s going to cost them more and so he needs to give families a break today; that's what I hope he'll do."

Asked if the Budget would be the work of Darling or his predecessor, the current prime minister, Cameron joked: "They'll say it's a green Budget, but I suspect it'll be a Brown Budget."

BBC Radio Four Today – Wednesday March 12

Calls for a cautious Budget in tough times

Ahead of this afternoon's Budget speech, there have been calls for reassurance from the business community and senior politicians.

The director general of the Institute of Directors called on Alistair Darling to reduce government expenditure in an effort to stave off inflation.

Miles Templeman also accused the chancellor of failing to think through the "unintended consequences" of his proposed changes to both non-domiciled and capital gains tax.

"I think he's brought in policies on the tax front particularly and hasn't realised their unintended consequences; they've hurt small businesses, they've hurt individuals and they could harm the city and so on – they haven't been thought through," Templeman said.

On the possibility of new green taxes on polluting activities, he said: "Green taxes haven't worked well in the past, even on their laudable objectives, so we're not sure about them at all.

"Also they increase the overall tax burden so it’s not that we're against drives for improvements on climate change, we want that, (but) we think it's better done by incentivisation and encouragement rather than by taxation."

Former Conservative chancellor Kenneth Clarke said Alistair Darling was in a "dreadful fix".

He warned that any major spending increases were impossible because the public finances were in a "dreadful mess".

"I think there will be a bit of revenue raising actually but he'll tell us he's doing good, he'll put up the tax on alcohol but he'll make it as dull as possible or as worthy as possible," Clarke added.

Treasury committee chairman John McFall said that in "tough times", the Budget needed to reassure a public worried about the turbulence of the economic climate.

McFall said: "The credit crunch is going to have an effect on the high street so the standard of living is going to be affected so that's the first thing for the government to say: 'Look, in these tough times what we're going to do is to reassure people' and I wouldn't want to see any wild or imaginative initiatives."