And now it’s arrived.

The harshest budget in 50 years has set the tone for Britain’s economy over the life of this Parliament.

George Osborne told the BBC:

“I’m not claiming that people are immediately better off as a result of the Budget.

“I have said that everyone is making a contribution but by increasing the personal income tax allowance for people on the basic rate what I have done is tried to protect low and middle income earners, people who are in work, I wanted to reward work.”

“If I had not given that Budget yesterday, if I had just got up and said I’m going to stick with the plans I inherited from the Labour Party, we would now be in a proper economic crisis in this country, because people in the world and people in Britain know we have got to deal with these debt problems.”

Here are some of the stand-out measures:

Banks relieved – the £2bn levy is more lenient than expected

Public sector braced for massive job losses as spending slashed – inevitable

Higher rate of CGT increased to 28pc – lower than expected

Income tax break worth £200 for low and middle earners – a nod to fairness

Headline rate of corporation tax to fall to 24pc by 2014-15 – encouraging for business

For an excellent at-a-galnce break-down check out CityAM.