Brown’s green budget focuses on education and continued growth

A £34 billion (€49.13bn) boost for schools, as British Chancellor Gordon Brown vowed to make “excellence in education” his priority, was one of the key planks of yesterday’s budget.

Mr Brown used his 10th budget to promise a “stage-by-stage” programme to raise spending on state school pupils to the levels of their private counterparts.

There was also a substantial “green” package, including a new £210 (€303) top rate of road tax for the worst “gas guzzling” cars.