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.

In other measures there were increases in child tax credit, £1bn (€1.45bn) for armed forces for overseas operations, £100 million (€145m) for 10,000 new community support officers and £300m (€433m) to develop Olympic athletes.

There were funds for a memorial for the victims of the July London bombings and £1m (€1.45m) to set up a charitable fund for Britons injured in terrorist attacks abroad.

Mr Brown announced a £30bn (€43bn) sell-off of public assets and fresh Whitehall efficiency cuts.

He told the House of Commons it was “a budget for Britain’s future to secure fairness for each child by investing in every child”.

Tory leader David Cameron, however, derided Mr Brown.

“What we’ve got is a chancellor who has taxed too much, borrowed too much and is the roadblock to reform. He is a politician completely stuck in the past,” he said.

Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell said it was a missed opportunity.

“He could have tackled the unfair tax system. He could have made the environment a priority. He could have faced up to the pensions crisis. He could have addressed the problem of personal debt,” he said.

The main focus of the budget was education.

Mr Brown announced capital investment in schools would rise from £5.6bn (€8bn) to £8bn (€11.56bn) in the next five years - an overall increase of £34bn (€49.13bn).

Mr Brown said: “Our long-term aim should be to ensure for 100% of our children the educational support now available to just 10%.”

On the environment, Mr Brown announced an increase in the climate change levy on industry, help for insulating an additional 250,000 homes and the creation of an energy and environmental research institute, as well as the changes to road tax.

He announced that for the fourth year in succession fuel duty would be frozen, while air passenger tax would also stay unchanged.

On the traditional ‘sin taxes’, Mr Brown put 9p (€0.13) on a packet of cigarettes, 4p (€0.06) on a bottle of wine and 1p (€0.014) on a pint of beer while duties on whisky, spirits and cider will be frozen.

There will be no increase on champagne or British sparkling wines “in anticipation of World Cup success this summer”.

Mr Brown boasted that under his stewardship the economy had seen a 10th year of consecutive growth.

“The British economy is strong and strengthening,” he said.

He said it was on track to meet his forecast of 2-2.5% growth this year, rising to 2.75% and 3.25% in the next two years, while he predicted the Government’s 2% inflation target would be met for the next decade.

Borrowing is set to increase to £37bn (€53.5bn) this year and £36bn (€52bn) the year after, before falling back.