The Budget by OndineF

The Budget

1. The Budget is a very important annual announcement by the Government of the day, saying how it plans to spend the nation's money, which it gets from people's taxes, over the next year.

2. The Budget is delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who is the next most important person in the Government after the Prime Minister. The Chancellor lives next door to the PM at 11 Downing Street

- see picture above. The Chancellor today is Philip Hammond, who is in the Conservative Government of Theresa May.

3. The Chancellor gives his Budget speech in the House of Commons to tell all the MPs his plans. Later, the MPs will vote on whether or not to accept it. The Chancellor takes the speech to the House of Commons in a famous red briefcase.

4. The most popular part of the Budget was the Chancellor's idea to spend £3.1bn to help young people buy their first property. He will do this by abolishing a tax, called stamp duty, on any property that costs under £300,000. But many said it would make house prices rise, so it would not help!

5. The Chancellor pledged £1.5bn to help bring down the time people have to wait for the new Universal Credit, which has been very unpopular as there are problems while it gets sorted. However, many say this will not help enough.

6. There will be an extra £3bn for Brexit preparations. Hard Brexiters in the Conservatives are pleased because they want to be ready to leave the EU with no deal. Others say if we were not leaving the EU, we would be able to spend this money on schools or the NHS! Others say they thought that leaving the EU would save money, not cost more!

7. Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire will get help because the Government is giving £28m to Kensington and Chelsea Council to spend on mental-health care, regeneration of the area around the tower, and a new community space for survivors to get together.

8. The Chancellor announced £27m for more Maths teaching in schools! Secondary schools will also receive £600 for every pupil taking A-level Maths. But there is no new schools funding otherwise.

9. The Chancellor announced there will be no subsidies for companies wanting to build new renewable clean energy sources, like wind farms, solar plants and tidal lagoons, disappointing environmentalists. There was £2.8bn for the NHS, but NHS bosses said that was not enough. There was nothing for the police, or mental-health or social care either.

10. Hammond was trying to show optimism. But the Office for Budget Responsibility said that the UK's economy is even worse than has been thought, which will not help with low wages, low standards of living and getting taxes. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said it was 'a nothing-has-changed Budget from an out-of-touch Government with no idea of the reality of people's lives and no plan to improve them.'