AS always on Budget day there is a great scramble to digest the various speeches in time for my column deadline and no doubt there will be more detail to come as we pore over the 146-page Red Book that is handed out as soon as the Chancellor sits down, but my first impressions are as follows.

This is George Osbornes’ eighth Budget and once again, it is based on keeping Britain growing while we live within our financial means. When he first became Chancellor in 2010, the government was borrowing £1 for every £4 it spent; that ratio is now £1 for every £14. This has been achieved by sensible spending reductions, while protecting NHS spending and keeping our commitments on Defence and International Development, and by ensuring we have among the best conditions for business growth in the western world – as it is from growth that we raise the taxes to pay for our investments in education and infrastructure.

This is a budget for fixing the foundations of future growth and prosperity, namely investing in infrastructure and in our education system. Every school in England will become an academy by 2020 and a fair National Funding Formula will reform school funding. This will be a major fillip for Wiltshire schools which for far too long have been underfunded compared to schools in other areas. Money from a levy on sugary drinks will be invested in school sports.

It is also a budget for small business with announcements like the permanent increase in business rate relief from £6,000 to £15,000 so that from April 2017, 600,000 small businesses will pay no business rates at all. Stamp duty for commercial properties is to be reformed so that it will be easier for small firms that want to move to bigger premises to expand.

And finally it is a budget for working people who want to save and invest for their family’s future with increases in personal tax allowances to £11,500 from 2017, and an increase in the annual ISA limit to £20,000, a 'lifetime' ISA for the under-40s, with the government putting in £1 for every £4 saved. It was also good to see some announcements that will help now like freezing fuel duty for the sixth year in a row which will help household budgets and support small firms, and freezing beer and cider duty to back British pubs.

This was a Budget that puts the next generation first – a Budget to make Britain fit for the future.