'Five years ago our economy had suffered a collapse almost greater than any country, today we have grown faster than almost any economy,' said Osborne, although he ruled out any tax giveaways in this Budget, as he committed to concentrating on reducing the national debt,' said Osborne.

'We choose the future, we choose as the central judgment of this budget to use whatever additional resources we have to get the deficit and the debt falling.

'No short-term giveaways can ever begin to help people as much as a recovering economy. We will not waver from that task.'

There are also stronger signs of recovery, he stressed, with ‘2.6% growth confirmed by the Office for Budget Responsibility - and Britain growing faster than Germany and France.

However, eco political unrest is a threat to economic recovery, he admitted, while 'the biggest development since the Autumn Statement is the falling oil price, so the OBR has revised down growth of world economy, world trade and euro', and has warned that the current Greece standoff with the EU is a potential risk to the UK.

He hinted that there will be new investments in science and innovation, highlighted the increases to the national minimum wage and the apprentice pay, and his own personal project, the Northern powerhouse, which will see more investment in a northern hub, although much of this has been previously announced.

The OBR has revised the growth figures up, 2.4% at AS, now forecast to be higher still at 2.5% with next year expected at 2.3%.

'We will end this parliament with the debt target met. The OBR report today says national debt falls from 80.4% to 80.2% in 2015/16 and down to 74% in 2018/19, until it reaches 71.6% in 2019/20.

'Because it is falling a year earlier than predicted in Autumn Statement 2015, the public sector spending cost cutting programme will be reduced by one year. 

'In 2018/19 Britian will have a budget surplus of 0.2% and will be running a surplus for the first time in 18 years.' 

The government will also sell off some of the part-nationalised bank mortgage business and will launch a sale of £14bn of mortgage assets of Bradford and Bingley; will see at least a further £9bn of Lloyds shares.

Osborne said: 'More money from the people paying the top rate of tax - the lower paid 50% of taxpayers now pay a lower proportion of income tax than any time in this parliament. 

He also announced a number of measures to clamp down on tax avoidance, including more transparency of reporting and extending the rules to curb the use and abuse of employment intermediaires, to raise £3.1bn over the forecast period.

He also announced a plan to review avoidance of inheritance tax through use of deeds of variation. 

Meantime, he said the annual allowance for pensions, currently £30,000, will not be reduced, although the lifetime allowance will be reduced.

'From next year we will further reduce the lifetime allowance to £1m from £1.25m – from 2018 will index the lifetime allowance,' Osborne said.

'We have had representations that we should also restrict the annual allowance to reduce tuition fees but we will not be doing this – it will not be progressive or fair, and we won’t do it.'

Further details about all the tax measures announced in the Budget are available at http://www.accountancylive.com/budget