Darling announces UK budget for 2009

The United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, yesterday announced the 2009 budget. The budget is an annual audit of the nation's finances, and decides what should be done with taxpayers' money.

The chancellor fell under scorn for his GDP growth forecasts, which are considered to be too optimistic in predicting that Britain will bounce back from its weakest economic performance since the end of the second world war. Darling forecast GDP growth of 3.5% in 2011, even after he was made to downgrade his predictions. He expects a record expansion of 1.25% next year, but chief UK economist Howard Archer disagrees, calling Darling's predictions "mildly optimistic in the near term and much more optimistic in the long term."

His plans for savers and pensioners, however, were commended by many, though was also criticised by a large portion of the populace. In the budget, Darling increased the amount that savers can put into an Individual Savings Account (ISA) from £7,200 to £10,200, of which £5,100 can be saved in cash. These increased limits will be available only to people aged over 50 from 6 October this year, and will not be available to everyone until 6 April next year. A number of financial experts described the move as being "too little, too late", and Rumina Hassam, of price comparison website uSwitch.com, said: "The government's decision to increase the cash ISA limit by £1,500 to £5,100 for the over 50's is a just another kick in the teeth for the majority of savers as they will have to wait even longer to benefit. There is no doubt that savers have been sacrificed as a result of the plummeting base rate, bringing savings rates to an all time low."

Departmental expenditure limits

The tables below show the government's plans for spending between now and 2011, although the 2010 budget may change these plans.

Resource DELOutturn 2007-08Estimate 2008-09 Plans 2009-10Plans 2010-11Children, Schools and Families 44.9 46.8 49.2 51.3 Health 88.4 92.5 99.9 104.0of Health: NHS England 86.4 90.9 98.2 102.3Transport 6.8 6.5 6.4 6.4Innovation, Universities and Skills 15.5 16.7 17.2 17.9CLG Communities 4.2 4.3 4.5 4.5CLG Local Government 22.8 24.6 25.6 26.3Home Office 8.6 8.9 9.4 9.5Justice 8.8 9.3 9.5 9.4Law Officers' Departments 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7Defence 35.7 37.9 38.7 36.7Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.9 2.0 2.0 1.6International Development 4.5 4.8 5.5 6.2Energy and Climate Change 0.6 1.0 1.1 1.1Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 1.8 1.6 1.8 1.4Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 2.7 2.7 2.7 2.7Culture, Media and Sport 1.6 1.6 1.7 1.7Work and Pensions 8.1 8.1 9.1 9.9Scotland 23.8 24.6 25.4 26.1Wales 12.3 13.0 13.6 14.0Northern Ireland Executive 7.6 8.1 8.4 8.7Northern Ireland Office 1.3 1.3 1.2 1.2Chancellor's Departments 4.8 4.8 4.6 4.5Cabinet Office 1.8 2.0 2.3 2.4Independent Bodies 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0Modernisation Funding 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3Reserve 0.0 0.0 0.7 2.9Allowance for shortfall 0.0 -0.6 0.0 0.0Total resource DEL 309.9 324.3 342.1 352.3

Capital DELOutturn 2007-08Estimate 2008-09 Plans 2009-10Plans 2010-11Children, Schools and Families 5.2 5.6 7.2 6.8 Health 3.8 4.6 5.6 4.8of Health: NHS England 3.6 4.4 5.4 4.7Transport 7.1 7.3 8.3 7.4Innovation, Universities and Skills 2.1 2.1 2.6 1.8CLG Communities 6.1 7.1 8.8 6.1CLG Local Government 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1Home Office 0.7 0.9 0.8 0.8Justice 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.7Law Officers' Departments 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0Defence 7.9 8.6 9.1 8.8Foreign and Commonwealth Office 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2International Development 0.7 0.9 1.4 1.6Energy and Climate Change 1.5 1.7 2.0 1.8Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.3Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 0.6 0.6 0.7 0.6Culture, Media and Sport 0.5 0.8 0.4 0.6Work and Pensions 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1Scotland 3.6 3.3 3.7 3.2Wales 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.7Northern Ireland Executive 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1Northern Ireland Office 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1Chancellor's Departments 0.3 0.3 1.0 0.3Cabinet Office 0.3 0.4 0.4 0.4Independent Bodies 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1Reserve 0.0 0.0 1.2 2.1Allowance for shortfall 0.0 -0.2 0.0 0.0Total capital DEL 44.1 48.3 57.7 51.6

TotalOutturn 2007-08Estimate 2008-09 Plans 2009-10Plans 2010-11Depreciation 10.8 11.9 12.4 13.4Total Departmental Expenditure Limits 343.2 360.7 387.3 390.5Total Education spending 78.1 83.0 88.0 89.2