Osborne said he will use his windfall to "pay off debt".

The Chancellor has said that lower gilt rates reflect the confidence of investors. But the rates were lowered by quantitative easing.

Full text of the Budget speech (updating throughout) ind.pn

You get the feeling that if he were Chancellor for the next 15 years, Osborne would mention Gordon Brown's ill-judged sell-off of gold in each Budget he delivers. He just claimed that the £2bn Brown sold off in gold reserves would now be worth £13bn.

Upbeat George Osborne predicts more growth ind.pn

The Chancellor has said that investment in transport in the North of England has been lacking for years - and "not by this government". In his main job, Osborne is the Tories' election strategist. He knows that northern votes will be needed to pull off a Tory majority in 2015. That is why he is, on this front, trotting out his inner-Keynesian.

Osborne says: 'UK must confront the lack of airport capacity in the south east. Announcements later this summer.'

Network Rail to extend the electrification of Trans-Pennine route.

£70m for investment in London. Boris Johnson will be telling a lot of Londoners that he is responsible for extracting that cash from No 11 over the coming weeks.

The Government is to seek "major savings" in adminstrative cost of the Carbon Reduction Commitment, and bring forward an alternative environment tax this autumn if they cannot be found.

"Major package of tax changes" to boost oil and gas extraction in North Sea, along with £3 billion new field allowance west of Shetland.