Osborne: Income tax cut for 31 million people

In his Budget, the chancellor has announced changes to income tax with a new personal allowance of £11,500.

He said that meant basic level taxpayers would be be paying more than £1,000 less annually than they did five years ago.

He also announced the raising of the threshold for paying the top rate of tax to £45,000, which would take 500,000 people out of the band.

He closed his speech by describing it as a "Budget for working people", adding it would reach a surplus so that the next generation would not be paying off today's debts.