The chancellor presented the 2011 budget on 23rd March. The main announcements that affect businesses are outlined below.

George Osborne intends to make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business and will implement the following to strive to achieve this:

Reduce the main rate of Corporation Tax by a further 1 per cent. From April 2011 the rate will be reduced to 26 per cent and by 2014, it will be reduced to 23 per cent

Implement its Corporate Tax Road Map, including introducing new Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) rules to allow groups based in the UK to compete more effectively with those based overseas, and consult on the Patent Box

Increase the personal allowance for under 65s by £630 in April 2012, with the higher rate threshold unchanged, a further step towards the £10,000 personal allowance commitment

Simplify the tax system, responding to the work of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), abolishing 43 tax reliefs

Consult this year on the options for integrating the operation of income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

Drop existing proposals for specific regulations which would have cost business over £350 million a year

Introduce a moratorium exempting micro-business and start-ups from new domestic regulation for three years from the 1st April 2011

Implement the proposals of Lord Young’s review of Health and Safety

Launch a public thematic review to reduce the stock of regulation, with a presumption that burdensome regulations will be removed

Streamline the system for planning applications and introduce new fast-track planning for major infrastructure

Reform the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Venture Capital Trusts, including raising the rate of EIS income tax relief to 30 per cent from April 2011;

Increase the SME rate of R&D tax credit to 200 per cent from April 2011 and 225 per cent from April 2012

Double the lifetime limit for Entrepreneurs Relief to £10 million

Invest £100 million in science capital development; and launch the first Technology and Innovation Centre in high value manufacturing.

Extend the limit for capital allowances short life assets election from four to eight years

Establish 21 new Enterprise Zones

Fund an additional 80,000 work experience places for young people, ensuring upto 100,000 places will be available over the next two years

Fund up to 50,000 additional apprenticeship places over the next four years and expand the University Technical Colleges programme to establish at least 24 new colleges.

Change the underlying indexation basis for direct taxes to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) from April 2012. For the duration of this Parliament, the annual increases in the employer NICs threshold, the age related allowance and other thresholds for older people will be over-indexed compared to the CPI and will increase by the equivalent of the Retail Prices Index (RPI)

Cut fuel duty by 1 pence per litre on Budget day. The fuel duty escalator will be replaced with a fair fuel stabiliser that increases tax on North Sea oil production when oil prices are high. The April 2011 inflation-only increase will be delayed to January 2012. The April 2012 increase will be delayed to August 2012. The Government will increase the Supplementary Charge on oil and gas production to 32 per cent from 24 March 2011

The Plan for Growth published alongside this Budget, contains four overarching ambitions that will ensure progress is made towards achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth. The ambitions are to:

· create the most competitive tax system in the G20;
· make the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business;
· encourage investment and exports as a route to a more balanced economy; and
· create a more educated workforce that is the most flexible in Europe.