Budget Will Deliver 'Truly National Recovery'

George Osborne has arrived at Parliament where he is preparing to give his last Budget speech before the election.

The Chancellor has already cautioned voters there will be "no gimmicks, no giveaways" and his words were echoed this morning by the Business Secretary, who told Sky News there would be no "spectacular giveaway".

Vince Cable insisted the measures contained in today's Budget were a "joint effort" between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats and that voters should not expect pre-election gifts.

Mr Osborne will find himself with around £5bn to play with as the Budget deficit for 2015 is expected to be revised down from £75.9bn to £69bn.

However, Dr Cable said that with a national debt still increasing it would be wrong to announce a number of giveaways and that it would not be an electioneering Budget by the Tories.

In a statement shortly after his Budget statement was signed off by the coalition parties, Mr Osborne said: "Today we set out the next stage in a plan that is working, with a Budget that works for you. We will deliver a truly national recovery."

Mr Osborne is expected to include a number of measures to benefit the "regions" and has long said he wants to create a "northern power house".

Among the anticipated announcements are a £1bn tidal lagoon in Swansea, investment in the HS3 rail link between Liverpool and Hull, and investment in science.

Income tax is expected to be one of the central measures and Mr Osborne is widely tipped to raise the level at which people start to pay income tax to £11,000 in April.

Mr Osborne will also announce plans to scrap the annual tax return - affecting more than 12 million professionals. It will be replaced with a "real-time" digital system which aims to reduce the time it takes to do returns from 40 minutes to 10 minutes.

Around five million pensioners with existing annuities will be given the right to cash them in from next year.

Businesses will also hope to see announcements on passenger air duty, reductions in charges on North Sea energy firms and measures to encourage research and development.

Also expected are announcements on loans of up to £25,000 for PhD students from poorer backgrounds and a £40m fund for church and cathedral roof repairs.

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Mr Osborne will say: "The critical choice facing the country now is this: do we return to the chaos of the past?

"Or do we say to the British people, let's work through the plan that is delivering for you?

"Today we make that critical choice: we choose the future. We have a plan that is working - and this is a Budget that works for you."

The Chancellor is expected to use the Budget to give voters more details on what the Conservatives will do if they win the General Election on 7 May.

These will include taking more people out of inheritance tax and raising the higher rate tax threshold to £50,000.

The Lib Dems have announced they will give their version of the Budget on Thursday.

A Sky News projection , following analysis of the latest polls, suggests a hung parliament with the two parties virtually neck and neck.

The Budget statement comes after new figures showed the number of unemployed falling by more than 100,000 to 1.86 million, which is the lowest since 2008.