The 2008 United Kingdom Budget, officially known as Budget 2008: Stability and opportunity: building a strong, sustainable future, was formally delivered by

Alistair Darling Alistair Maclean Darling, Baron Darling of Roulanish, (born 28 November 1953) is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. A member of the Labour Party, he was a Member ...

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on 12 March 2008. It was the first Budget to be delivered by Darling, who had been appointed

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

the previous June. Among the changes from the previous year were that taxes on alcohol, cigarettes and high-polluting cars would be increased.

Child Benefit Child benefit or children's allowance is a social security payment which is distributed to the parents or guardians of children, teenagers and in some cases, young adults. A number of countries operate different versions of the program. In most co ...

would be raised to £20 a week from April 2009; winter fuel payments for pensioners would also be increased. All long-term recipients of

Incapacity Benefit Incapacity Benefit was a British social security benefit that was paid to people facing extra barriers to work because of their long-term illness or their disability. It replaced Invalidity Benefit in 1995. The government began to phase out Inc ...

would have to attend work capacity programmes from April 2010. The growth of the national economy was expected to slow down to approximately 2% in 2008, down from 3% in the previous year.

Details

Taxes

Spending

Notes

External links

Complete Budget 2008 Report

{{United Kingdom budget

Budget A budget is a calculation play, usually but not always financial, for a defined period, often one year or a month. A budget may include anticipated sales volumes and revenues, resource quantities including time, costs and expenses, environmenta ...

United Kingdom budgets

United Kingdom budget The Budget of His Majesty's Government is an annual budget set by HM Treasury for the following financial year, with the revenues to be gathered by HM Revenue and Customs and the expenditures of the public sector, in compliance with government p ...

March 2008 events in the United Kingdom