The time is upon us again for the UK’s budget; 2011 is no different from any other year, with some expected changes and some not so expected!

One of Chancellor George Osborne’s major points was that his office has reduced the annual growth forecast from 2.1% to 1.7% in 2012. This coupled with heavy inflationary pressures could spell a few problems for people living within the UK. The Chancellor still vows to eliminate the deficit before 2015 for the next election.

Inflation is expected to remain at 4 - 5% this year, then reduce to 2.5% in 2012 and finally hit its target of 2% by 2013. The general public will probably have more confidence once we reach below the 3% mark.

Obviously the war on Libya is in every major news paper and on every television station; people fear that this could be a major drain on the government’s spending, However, Mr. Osbourne has confirmed that military action will be financed entirely by Treasury and Treasury Reserve; and the borrowing forecast should fall from £146 billion this year to £29 billion in 2015/16.

The government is aiming to help first time property buyers with a total government spend predicted at more than GBP250 million for a shared equity scheme. The amount of first time property buyers in the UK has been depleting for a number of years.

This is due to a number of reasons: from Maggie Thatcher’s “Right to Buy” your own council house scheme back in the 1980’s, through to the property bubble in the 1990’s and onwards, which made many wealthy people even wealthier because they snapped up value housing and then rented to the working class society, which simply drained the supply of low cost housing.

This vicious circle of the rich renting to the poor and reducing the supply chain has only made things worse. In fact these two examples are just a snap shot of dozens of reasons why first time buyers simply don’t have the supply of value housing anymore.

The governments help for the younger generation does not stop there, they also have plans to create 24 new universities and colleges and create 40,000 apprenticeships for the young jobless in England.

With regards to pensions, there will be a single-tier flat-rate state pension to be created, expected to be about £140-a-week.

One of the major surprises is that from April, corporation tax will be reduced by 2%, and by 1% in each of the following three years, to bring it down to 23%. A levy on banks will be increased to help pay for it.

Inheritance tax discounts for charitable donations has been adjusted and the personal tax allowance is to rise from £7,475 to more than £8,105 in April 2012.

Plans to switch air passenger duty from passengers to planes have been dropped. The air passenger duty rise has been postponed for one year; however, the Government will seek to impose the tax on private jets.

Another surprise is the cut in the price of fuel by 1p per litre with immediate effect. The government has also increased the mileage allowance for businesses from 40p – 45p. The Chancellor has slapped higher charges on oil and gas production which he said would raise 2 billion pounds in total.

There will also be £350 million worth of regulation on businesses removed; while relief for entrepreneur tax has doubled to £10 million.

The government is cutting public spending by £81 billion over the next four years, while already-announced tax rises will start to kick in from next month. Analysts said the coalition was gambling on the economy bouncing back strongly before the next election, pointing to a heady growth forecast of 2.9 percent for both 2013 and 2014.

Sterling fell to the day's low versus the dollar in response to the new economic forecasts while gilts pared gains on estimates that borrowing needs would decline more slowly than previously thought.