§ That brings me to the end of my proposals. In total, the full year cost to the revenue of the measures I have announced as coming into effect at once may be reckoned at about £220 million; and after taking account of these measures, the central Government should this year have a surplus of £619 million. The public sector as a whole should have a surplus of about £250 million. Thus, the improvement in the balance of public sector transactions which we have brought about in the past two years is being consolidated and sustained.
§ The Budget endeavours to give limited help where it is most socially necessary, and where, within the existing tax frame-work, it is most reasonable to proceed. No prices should be put up as a result of what I have announced. No one should be effectively worse off. But over 2 million people will be taken out of income tax altogether. And there will be benefit, in varying degrees, for a further 16½ million people who pay income tax and surtax.
§ The result is a significant lightening of the burden for a very large number of people. But I have deliberately proceeded with caution. We cannot allow 1253 the hard-won national gains of the past two years to slip away. I have paid at least as much regard to the needs of industry for credit as to the needs of individuals for tax remission.
§ This is a Budget for growth, but for suitable growth. It is a Budget for the strength and balance of the economy, on which depends the whole future prospect of the standard of living of our people. It is a Budget not just for today, but a Budget geared to the needs of the whole year ahead, and to the period beyond that, too.