It was trailed as the 'boring budget', but we heard about significant policies that will make life easier for working people on finite incomes and help businesses to create jobs.
Here are my top five budget highlights:
1. Tax cuts for ordinary workers
Bringing forward to 2014 significant cuts in income tax for low earners. We will all be able to earn our first £10,000 tax free from next year.
2. Paying child care costs for working families
Returning 20% of the cost of child care to working families on the first £6000 they spend - that is £1,200 of help, every year, for each child.
3. Freezing fuel tax
Continuing to freeze fuel tax - thanks to our tax freeze your petrol now costs 13p less than under Labour's plans.
4. Helping businesses create jobs
Taking £2,000 off the tax paid by businesses when they employ someone, lifting 450,000 businesses out of paying the jobs tax altogether.
5. Backing British businesses
Cutting corporation tax to 20%, the lowest rate of any of the world's top 20 economies.
The thread connecting these policies is this: work pays, and we want you to keep more of the money you earn. The Conservatives are not just sitting back and waiting for austerity to work, we are taking concrete steps to help ordinary people with the cost of living and to help businesses grow and create jobs.
Stick with us. The economy is healing - this is taking a long time because of the huge damage done by Labour.
The budget deficit has now been reduced by one third, which is real progress towards balancing the books. With the Conservatives, in coming years the deficit will continue to shrink and then it will disappear. When we are earning more than we spend we will see our enormous national debt melt away. We can then bring to an end the sinful waste of using public money to pay debt-interest to wealthy international money-men.
This budget underlines that this government is helping ordinary workers on each step of this difficult but necessary journey.
Budget Summary http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Issues/budget.aspx