HAVING ESTABLISHED his own family, Gordon Brown set about ensuring that they benefit from improved family-friendly benefits like the children’s tax credit.

However, he now seems keen to limit the cost of these benefits by ensuring there is no increase in family sizes with a cut in the VAT rate on contraceptive products from 17.5% to 5%.

The tax on sex has been reduced!

Mr Brown has held out a small crumb of comfort to homebuyers, extending the stamp duty land tax threshold for residential transactions by an above inflation £5000 to £125,000.

This seems unlikely, however, to keep up with spiralling house price inflation. The useful yield the tax provides for the Exchequer is proving difficult to let go.

Whilst he has claimed “green” credentials, the abolition of the 50% discount on climate change levy (CCL) for energy used in horticulture will be a blow for farmers, who are now encouraged to seek to make use of agreements to reduce energy consumption in exchange for even greater discounts.

Increasing the general levels of CCL by the rate of inflation from April 2007 will hardly be welcomed by the business community, already reeling from significant increases in energy costs.

The inflation-busting escalating rate of landfill tax is calculated to encourage less waste going to landfill.

For those thinking of starting businesses, the turnover threshold under which you can trade without having to register for and charge VAT increases to £61,000 from April 1.

This is the same date as the previously announced doubling in the thresholds for the business-friendly cash accounting and annual accounting schemes to £1,350,000.