Articles - Budget 2013

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 We've now cut the deficit not by a quarter, but by a third.

 We've helped business create not a million new jobs, but one and a quarter million new jobs.

 We've kept interest rates at record lows.

 But Mr Deputy Speaker, despite the progress we've made, there's much more to do.

 Today, I'm going to level with people about the difficult economic circumstances we still face and the hard decisions required to deal with them.

 It is taking longer than anyone hoped, but we must hold to the right track.

 And by setting free the aspirations of the nation, we will get there.

 Our economic plan combines monetary activism with fiscal responsibility and supply side reform.

 And today we go further on all three components of that plan: monetary, fiscal, and supply side reform.

 But we also understand something else more fundamental.

 Our nation is in a global race - competing alongside new centres of enterprise around the world for investment and jobs that can move anywhere.

 Building a modern reformed state we can afford.

 Bringing businesses to our shores with competitive taxes.

 Fixing the banks.

 Improving our schools, our skills, our infrastructure, and our industry.

 For years people have felt that the whole system was tilted against those who did the right thing: who worked, who saved, who aspired.

 These are the very people we must support if Britain is to have a prosperous future.

 This is a Budget for those who aspire to own their own home; who aspire to get their first job; or start their own business;

 A Budget for those who want to save for their retirement and provide for their children.

 It is a Budget for our Aspiration Nation.

 Budget statement to the House of Commons delivered by the Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Wednesday 20 March 2013.