The decision to go ahead regardless and increase business rates will squeeze embattled retailers further and will not deliver the respite the retail sector needs to recover. Retailers are now left facing a 2.6% hike to their business rates bill, a move which will add £175m to their overheads. Amongst a backdrop of flatlining sales and continued austerity, this is not a welcome move by the Government. With its extensive property portfolios the sector is particularly vulnerable to rate rises, and today's decision to do just that will undoubtedly have a negative effect on those businesses in distress. A complete rethink of how business rates are calculated is needed, and in the meantime a freeze should be the only way forward. 14.46 So who are the winners and losers from this year's Budget? According to personal finance editor Andrew Oxlade, unless you drink or smoke, you're probably in the winners camp. 14.42 Sarah Sands, the newspaper's editor, said in a statement: An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public and the individual who Tweeted the page has been suspended while this takes place. 14.39 Telegraph commentator Tom Chivers has written a blog responding to the news that the Evening Standard accidentally tweeted out its front page for today which essentially gave away all of the key points of the Budget before the Chancellor had even stood up. The Standard says it has immediately suspended the person responsible for tweeting the image, but Tom says don't scapegoat the Evening Standard's tweeter. It's probably just some poor kid on £18k. As m'colleague Andrew M Brown points out, in the past, a Chancellor has resigned for less. But today the attention is focusing almost exclusively on the Standard. Various of its editors have apologised, and "the person responsible" has been suspended "pending an investigation." Now, I don't know, but I don't think the Standard has done anything illegal here. Embargoes are agreements between source and newspaper. I would, though, like to pre-empt the investigation by the Standard. I can guess who the "person responsible" was, and how it happened: the person responsible would have been someone no older than 25, who tweets the front page every day, and who is probably paid about £18,000 a year on a temp contract to be in charge of the social media stuff. He or she would have tweeted the front page as usual, because it wouldn't have occurred to them that this is a Special Front Page. And now they're getting the heat from a whole country. Of course I may be wrong. But it's a simple mistake. 14.17 More on the pound, which has strengthened against the dollar on the back of the Budget speech. Nawaz Ali at Western union Business Solutions, comments: Currency investors are reacting positively towards the British pound after UK Chancellor, George Osborne, called for monetary activism to help accelerate economic growth in Britain but then unveiled a new policy framework for the Bank of England without the "game-changing" remit that many in the market had feared. The government made what some would see as minor changes to UK monetary policy, changes that should significantly reduce expectations the Bank of England will tolerate higher prices in the economy in order to turbo-charge Britain's economic recovery through a bigger inflationary asset purchase programme. Crucially, Chancellor Osborne reaffirmed the central bank's 2% inflation goal which is bullish for sterling. The pound has come under increasing pressure this year on views the Bank of England may be asked to target the 2% level more loosely, giving central bankers much greater scope to explore unconventional stimulus such as quantitative easing . The worry for sterling bulls should now be that if the Bank of England guarantees ultra-low borrowing rates for years to come to encourage borrowing and lending, will this also encourage global currency traders to use the pound more as a funding currency for carry trades which would be a big negative for sterling. 14.14 The Treasury has compiled a handy infographic on its new Help to Buy scheme. 14.12 The full 2013 Budget can be found here. And George Osborne's full speech is here. 14.08 The debate continues in the Commons, although most of the key players have now left the chamber. Here's a round-up of the main points of the Budget: Britain's economic growth has slowed - again. The OBR has slashed Britain's 2013 growth forecast in half, to 0.6pc. Since the body was created, OBR forecasts have only gone in one direction: down. The personal allowance will go up to £10,000 in 2014 - that's a year earlier than initially planned. There will be 600,000 more private sector jobs created this year and 60,000 fewer people claiming jobless benefits, according to the OBR. Any first time buyer who wants to buy a new home worth less than £600,000 will be given help. As long as they have a 5pc deposit, the Government will stump up an extra 20pc - repayable when the house is sold. September's rise in fuel duty has been cancelled. Beer tax will be cut by 1p from Sunday. A new employment allowance will be created that will reduce companies' national insurance bills by £2,000 per employee. Up to 2.5m employers will benefit, while 450,000 of the country's smallest businesses will no longer pay any employer contributions, according to the Treasury. The Bank of England's remit is changing. It is still expected to keep inflation at 2pc, but will be asked to explain in greater detail the reasons behind their decisions. If new Governor Mark Carney misses the target, he will write to Osborne when the minutes are released two weeks later, instead of when the decision is made on the first Thursday of the month. 13.47 Ben Martin on the markets: Currency traders were evidently paying close attention to the Budget. Sterling fell against the dollar during the Chancellor's speech on worries the 2pc inflation target may be revised, but the reaffirmation of that target sent the pound back up to $1.5155. Sterling rallied earlier in the morning following the release of the Bank of England minutes. The internationally-focused FTSE 100 is currently up 17 points at 6,458, and the FTSE 250, which is more representative of the UK economy, has managed to claw back some of its earlier losses and is now down 15 points at 14,020. Shares in the housebuilders, however, are all flying on the back of the Government's move to help homebuyers. Barratt Developments is up 5pc, Redrow is 3.5pc higher and Bellway is 3pc better. 13.40 Miliband asks David Cameron if he is benefiting from the 50p tax cut. Cameron whispers something to Osborne, but refuses to engage with Miliband, who asks the rest of the Conservative benches to "raise their hands" if they will benefit. 13.38 Miliband is on the attack. He says that after three years, Osborne has made no progress. It's a broken deal, he adds. All he offers is more of the same. "You are borrowing more - his own business secretary said he was borrowing more," says Miliband. 13.34 "He's the wrong man in the place at the worst possible time for this country," says Miliband. But he has secured one upgrade, travelling first class on a second class ticket. Miliband is referring to this story. 13.30 "All he offers is more of the same," Ed Miliband. "He almost need not have bothered coming in as it was all in the Standard before he came in," he adds. 13.29 Labour leader Ed Miliband stands up to respond to Osborne. Parliamentary rules dictate that it's the leader of the opposition who responds to the Chancellor's Budget speech. The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, will respond tomorrow. 13.26 George Osborne concludes: "If you want to own your own home, help with child care, start your own business and give someone a job, work hard and get on, we are on your side. This is a Budget that doesn't duck our nation's problems but confronts them head on. He sits down after 54 minutes and 30 seconds. 13.25 Osborne is creating a new employment allowance that will reduce companies' national insurance bills by £2,000 per employee, he says. The new allowance will mean 450,000 small businesses pay no "jobs tax." 13.24 As expected, the personal allowance will be raised to £10,000 a year early in 2014. The Lib Dems love it, and wave their order papers around and cheer rather more enthusiastically than the Tory MPs. Danny Alexander pats Nick Clegg on the shoulder. 13.21 Osborne has scrapped the 3p rise in beer duty, and instead says beer duty will be cut by 1p from Sunday. That's a penny off a pint, he says. He will maintain increases on all other alcoholic products. Cheers! 13.19 September's fuel duty rise will be scrapped, says Osborne. Petrol will now be 13p a litre cheaper than if the Government had not acted over the last two years, he adds. For a Vauxhall Astra or Ford Focus that is £7 off every time you fill up, he says. Capital Economics estimates that this will cost the Treasury £0.7bn. 13.16 Mr Osborne announces "Help to Buy," where £3.5bn will be set aside to provide shared equity loans to help buyers over the next three years. As long as a first time buyer has a 5pc deposit, the government will give "anyone looking to move up the housing ladder" a 20pc equity loan, to be repaid when the house sold. The only constraint is that the home can't be worth more than £600,000, says Osborne. 13.13 Thomas Pascoe has posted a quick blog on the OBR's updated borrowing figures: He writes: The new and updated borrowing figures which have just been announced by George Osborne are a disaster. This Coalition was formed in order to tackle our debt levels. By 2015, it was supposed to have eliminated the annual deficit and have begun to pay down debt. Instead, there will now be an annual deficit in the 2017/18 financial year. This year, the Government will overspend by 7.4pc of GDP (against 6.9pc anticipated in the Autumn Statement). In 2017/18, it will still be overspending by 2.2pc of GDP. At a time when households have experienced a great squeeze on their living conditions through inflation, stagnant pay and tight credit, the Government has failed to keep its side of the bargain. For all the pain, there has been no gain. Our debt problem is worse than it has ever been before, and today's announcement tells us it will still be getting worse when we celebrate New Year in 2018. That's a failure. It's a failure of policy, it's a failure of will, and we will all continue to suffer for it. 13.12 He confirms that the single tier pension will be brought forward by a year to 2016. 13.12 And here's a closer look at the Bank of England's new remit. 13.11 Meanwhile, the Evening Standard has issued this apology: 13.07 Corporation tax will be cut by a further 1pc to a symbolic 20pc. "That's a tax cut for jobs and growth," he says. According to Capital Economics, this will cost about £0.4bn. This will be paid for by an increase in the bank levy to 0.142pc. It is currently 0.13pc. 13.06 Mr Osborne says he will abolish stamp duty on shares traded on markets such as AIM. 13.02 Fracking is the way forward, says Osborne "Shale gas is part of the future and we will make it happen," he says. The Government will introduce generous tax breaks to promote early investment in shale gas, he says. 13.02 Osborne moves on to energy: A vital sector for the economy is energy and creating a low carbon economy should be done in way that creates jobs. The granting of Hinkley Point was a major step forward for nuclear - we will support the manufacture of low carbon cars with new tax incentives. 12.58 The Whitehall cuts will be used to boost infrastructure spending by £3bn a year from 2015/16. That's £15bn of extra spending over the next decade, says Osborne. Through "the economic arteries of this country we will get growth flowing to every part of it." he says. 12.57 Some reaction from Saga's Ros Altmann to the tweaks to the BoE's remit: 12.54 Osborne has a frog in his throat. He pauses to clear it. 12.53 Osborne will seek to save £11.5bn of savings in the next spending round versus a previous target of £10bn. Total spending for 2015/16 has been set at £745bn. Public sector pay increases will be limited to 1pc. 12.47 The Bank of England's remit will change, says Osborne. It will still target CPI inflation, and its job is still to keep inflation at, or around 2pc. However, it will be asked to explain in greater detail "the trade-offs" it has made when taking decisions to ensure better communication between the Bank and Treasury. If Mark Carney and co miss the target, he will still write a letter to the Chancellor, but not until the day when the minutes of that months interest rate meeting are published (currently the letter is written on the day of the decision). It will also be asked to provide "explicit forward guidance," much like the Fed does at the moment. King and Carney have seen the new remit and both have agreed to it, says Osborne. 12.46 This Budget will be fiscally neutral, says Osborne. For every £1 spent, £1 will be saved. 12.45 Osborne says he is on course to meet his core "fiscal mandate" - to balance the books over a rolling five-year period. As expected, Osborne admits that his supplementary target - that net public-sector debt would fall as a share of GDP between 2014-15 and 2015-16, will not be met. 12.44 Public sector net debt will peak in 2016/17. A year later than forecast in the Autumn Statement. 12.43 The numbers are coming thick and fast. The OBR sees the 2012/13 budget deficit at 7.4pc of GDP, 13/14 at 6.8pc and 5.9pc the following year. Compares with 6.9pc, 6.1pc and 5.2pc in December. 12.42 The deficit will fall to 5.4pc in 2014-15, he says. 12.41 But there is some good news, Osborne says the OBR now thinks that there will be 600k more jobs created this year, and 60,000 fewer people claiming jobless benefits. 12.39 OBR now predicts 0.6pc growth in 2013, 1.8pc growth in 2014, and 2.3pc in 2015. This compares with 1.2pc, 2pc and 2.3pc in the Autumn Statement. 12.38 "I will be straight with this country" says Mr Osborne, to more shouting from MPs. 12.37 George Osborne says that the situation in Cyprus and the eurozone is worrying, and says that the OBR has downgraded its forecasts - again. 12.36 The deputy speaker intervenes for the second time in six minutes. "let's not let this become the circus of the day" he says. It's a rowdy Commons this afternoon. 12.35 "This is a budget for people who aspire to work hard and get on. A budget for people who realise there are no easy answers for problems built up for many years We are slowly but surely fixing our economic problems," he says. For years people have felt that system was tilted against those who did the right thing, who worked and saved. These are the people we must support if we are to have a prosperous future. This is a budget for those who want to own their own home, get a job. Budget for our aspiration nation. 12.33 We've cut the deficit not by a quarter but by a third, he says. We've created not 1m but 1.2m private sector jobs. Today's Budget will combine "monetary activism" with "fiscal responsibility" and "supply side reform." 12.32 George Osborne has stood up. This is a Budget for people who "work hard and get on," he says. 12.31 First Budget front page. Today's Evening Standard. It's been leaked. Oh dear: 12.22 Cameron strongly hints that there could be a change to the personal tax allowance in the Budget. We have consistently lifted personal tax allowance. If [you're] sitting comfortably for the next hour we may have some more news," he says. 12.20 Meanwhile, With 10 minutes to go, Osborne is preparing himself by sucking on a cough sweet as he flicks through his notes on the front bench. 12.19 Diana Johnson, Labour MP for North Hull suggests that cabinet members, including George Osborne should be put on performance related pay. She asks Mr Cameron how much that would save. Cameron responds by saying that Osborne has ensured that the deficit has come down by a third, and has overseen the creation of 1m public sector jobs. 12.16 While Tim addresses a very different dilemma. Tie colours, of course: The Budget is obviously Parliament's answer to London Fashion Week. So today, given the woeful under-representation of women in the Commons, is all about the ties. The main players are in their team colours. Cameron has gone for a deep royal blue, while Osborne is wearing his pale powdery blue number. Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are proudly flying the Lib Dem yellow from their necks. However, Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, has controversially opted for Coalition Green. Is he half-way between a Liberal and a Tory? On the Labour side, both Eds are in red. 12.13 Political correspondents Rowena Mason and Tim Ross are watching PMQs for us. Rowena writes: Ed Miliband unexpectedly asks his first question about the Syrian arms embargo instead of the usual argy-bargy. David Cameron says he has discussed changes to the embargo (potentially to help the rebels) and condemns "worrying" reports about chemical weapons. It's an unusually calm and statesmanlike exchange. 12.09 Here's George Osborne's second tweet. Stick with us for live coverage of the full speech. 12.08 You can follow all the action in Cyprus on our debt crisis blog here. 12.02 Labour leader Ed Miliband asks Mr Cameron what is being done to protect British savers in Cyprus. Mr Cameron says that the Government has "absolutely guarenteed" that no British troops will lose out from any bank levy, or the bank shutdown that has resulted from the levy proposal. He mentions the million pound plane that was sent to the country last night, and adds that British expats will get any pension payments due to them. Payments are currently frozen, "but everyone should know that they will get their payments," he says. 12.00 PMQs has started. The Commons is packed. 11.52 Prime Minister's Questions starts at 12pm and we will be covering them here in this blog. Osborne will follow those and is due to stand up at 12.30pm so get your stop watches ready then. 11.49 The Telegraph's Tim Ross has filed this from Westminster, as journalists are briefed ahead of the Budget. The Prime Minister's official spokesman has given his daily briefing to political journalists at Westminster. Although he couldn't be coaxed into giving away any Budget secrets, the spokesman did tell us that George Osborne took senior ministers through the contents of his statement at this morning's Cabinet meeting. The spokesman said the Budget would show "the government make its economic case which is, in tough economic times as these are, sticking to the course of tackling the deficit whilst continuing to support aspiration." The spokesman said that a large number of Cabinet ministers contributed to the discussion during the meeting, which focused exclusively on the Budget. It was not clear if this meant that there had been dissenting voices but the PM's spokesman insisted: "There was strong agreement around the table that the approach that the Chancellor will set out is the right one." It's worth keeping an eye on some of the Lib Dem faces as Mr Osborne speaks later to see if this "strong agreement" is likely to hold. 11.46 Osborne is off to the Commons. Let's hope he didn't make the same mistake as George Ward Hunt in 1869, who arrived at Parliament and opened the Budget box only to find that he had left his speech at home. He lasted just six months in the job. 11.41 This is what Labour leader Ed Miliband had to say this morning on the Budget: What I want to hear from the Chancellor today is a willingness to change course, not more of the same. His economic plan is failing. It's failing Britain's businesses and Britain's families. Families are seeing their living standards fall year-on-year, while the Chancellor has given a tax break to the rich which comes into effect in less than a fortnight, said the Labour leader. The Government is borrowing over £200bn more than he had planned. Because it's paying for failure. Its failure to get growth moving. And it's also making Britain's families pay for that failure. We need a change of course from George Osborne today. What we don't need is him saying I'm going to stick to my failed plan. 11.33 If you fancy a flutter on the Budget and want to guess how long he is going to talk for here, Oddschecker.com have odds of 10/11 that his speech will last for 56 minutes. The longest ever budget speech was given by William Gladstone on 18 April 1853 which lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. Benjamin Disraeli's 45 minute speech in 1867 is the shortest ever budget speech on record. 11.31 The Telegraph's market reporter, Ben Martin, has been taking a closer look at markets after the MPC minutes and job figures out this morning. He reports: Following the worse than expected unemployment figures this morning, London's mid-cap FTSE 250 - which has a greater exposure to the domestic economy than the blue-chip FTSE 100 - has pared earlier gains and is down 20 points, and the benchmark index, which also started the day higher, is now flat. The Chancellor will have to pull out all the stops to beat the longest ever budget speech by William Gladstone on 18 April 1853 which lasted 4 hours and 45 minutes. It's also 10/11 that Osborne's speech comes in under 55 minutes, Benjamin Disraeli's 45 minute speech in 1867 is the shortest ever budget speech on record. 11.21 George Osborne has left Number 11, sporting a pale blue tie: 11.10 Prime Minister David Cameron has also left Downing Street. British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street (Photo: PA). 11.09 Reuters has produced a series of interactive charts for the Budget. Here's a quick look at a couple of them. One shows annual growth in the UK since 2005 and forecast up to 2017, and the second shows public sector net borrowing as a percentage of GDP. 11.03 ...though this blog by the Telegraph's Christian Adams still has my favourite image of Osborne - the pantomime villain. 10.58 It's not been a good day so far for the George Osborne PR machine (though he currently at 19,376 Twitter followers and counting). Here's a bit more fun from the Mirror: George Osborne's 20 most sinister looks. 10.47 An interesting observation by Norman Smith, the BBC's chief political correspondent. He notes that Patrick McLoughlin, the Transport secretary, and Vince Cable, the Business secretary were the last two cabinet members to leave Number 10 this morning. Mr Osborne is expected to announce more detail on how he's going to spend the cash generated from those Whitehall cuts. Top of the list? Infrastructure. Business Secretary Vince Cable leaves 10 Downing Street this morning (Photo: PA). 10.43 This is in addition to the £2.5bn of extra capital spending that was announced this week, which will be paid for by extra cuts to departmental spending. Bringing in the flat rate pension in a year early is also expected to yield an extra £6bn for the Treasury because of extra employer national insurance contributions. Around 7m workers opt out of the state second pension, earning their employers a government rebate that would be worth £5.9bn in 2017. They will lose this under the new system. 10.41 Capital Economics has compiled a handy Budget checklist of the tax rises and spending cuts that we could see today: 10.28 As mentioned earlier (see 09.35) the worse-than-expected unemployment figures are a blow for Osborne just hours ahead of him delivering his Budget speech. And here is a graph showing the real squeeze on households as inflation outstrips earnings growth. Including bonus payments, the average weekly wage rose by 1.2pc comparing November 2012 to January 2013 with the same period a year earlier. Inflation was 2.7pc in January. 10.15 More jokes about Osborne joining Twitter. This time from actor and comedian David Schneider. 10.07 And more reaction to the pound rising after the release of the Bank's minutes. Peter Dixon, economist from Commerzbank, said he thought the MPC was waiting to see if any mandate changes were announced in this afternoon's budget. Currently the Bank has an inflation target but that could be amended to a growth target. If we get a situation where there's a little bit less emphasis placed on inflation following the Chancellor's speech then it may persuade one or two of the waverers, who are concerned about the QE impact on inflation to change their views. So the speech to day may just open the door for more QE indirectly. Philip Shaw at Investec added that while the vote to hold QE and interest rates was expected, what was a surprise was that some members "seemed sensitive to movements in sterling and that seems to have been a factor for the 'on-hold' camp. Of course, if we get a new remit or a different remit from the Chancellor today, the balance for monetary policy could well change. But there is nothing from today's minutes that screams out that we are definitely going to get more QE. 09.58 News of Mr Osborne joining Twitter has, inevitably, led to much humour, such as this from Channel 4 News' Krishnan Guru-Murthy. And that picture that he tweeted of himself signing the Budget has been analysed - although I'm not sure how accurate this is. 09.50 Some reaction to those worse-than-expected unemployment figures, which do not paint the backdrop that Osborne would have been hoping for today. John Salt, director at totaljobs.com, said Following the downgrade and recent poor manufacturing figures, this was the news the Chancellor didn't need ahead of the today's Budget . The series of poor economic indicators is now obviously hitting confidence with predictable effect and we'll have to see what's in George's red box that might make companies more willing to invest in job creation, rather than only hanging onto staff which has been the trend of late. 09.42 The great British pound has bounced after the Bank of England voted 6-3 not to extend QE and expressed growing concern about the weakness of the pound. "It ... remained appropriate to accommodate the first-round impact on CPI of movements in sterling, insofar as those movements reflected real factors," the minutes said. Prospective movements in the exchange rate that reflected perceptions that monetary policy would remain excessively loose, or that the MPC's commitment to meeting the inflation target in the medium-term was diminished, would be a different matter.