Key points: The pre-Budget report at-a-glance

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A summary of the key announcements in Alistair Darling's pre-Budget report.
TAX

• All national insurance rates to rise by a further 0.5% from April 2011, raising ?3bn a year
• VAT to return to 17.5% from 15% from 1 January 2010. No other changes to VAT
• One-off 50% tax on bank bonuses of more than ?25,000
• Stamp duty holiday on certain properties to end on 1 January 2010
• Bingo duty to be cut from 22% to 20%

ECONOMIC FORECASTS

• Economy forecast to shrink 4.75% in 2009, worse than 3.5% forecast in April
• Growth of 1%-1.5% expected in 2010 and 3.5% in 2011 and 2012

BORROWING
? 2009 forecast raised by ?3bn to ?178bn

• Estimated borrowing of ?176bn in 2010 and ?140bn in 2011, falling to ?96bn in 2013
• Budget deficit to be halved by 2013
• Estimated public loss from bank bailouts reduced from ?50bn to ?10bn

SPENDING

• Total spending in 2010-11 to rise by ?31bn.
• No spending review for period after that
• Current spending estimated to fall by 0.8% between 2011-2 and 2014-5

PAY, PENSIONS AND BENEFITS

• Basic state pension will rise by 2.5% in April 2010
• Child and disability benefit to rise by 1.5% in 2010
• Contributions to public sector pensions to be cut by ?1bn a year
• All public sector pay settlements to be capped at 1% for two years from 2011

ENVIRONMENT

• ?160m investment in low-carbon and renewable projects
• ?200m extra investment for Warm Front insulation scheme, helping 65,000 households
• Boiler scrappage scheme for 125,000 households
• Electric cars to be exempt from company car tax for five years
• Tax rebate for installation of wind turbines and solar panels

EMPLOYMENT

• Under-24s to be guaranteed work or training after six months out of work
• Training or education guarantee for 16 and 17-year-old to be extended to 2010

BUSINESS

• New 50p tax on landline phones to pay for superfast broadband
• New 10% tax on income from patents to boost science development
• 1p increase in corporation tax for small firms to be deferred

FAMILIES

• Free school meals to an extra 500,000 low income families