Online Budget Resources

• Accountants/Tax Advisers
• The Opposition Parties
• Government Sources
• Economic Analysts

Accountants/Tax Advisers

Moneyextra's team of analysts track other key web sites offering Budget coverage. Everyone's famous for 15 minutes and come Budget time, it's the accountants' turn under the spotlight. You can check out what the "big four" firms are saying here:

• Deloitte & Touche
• Ernst & Young
• Pricewaterhousecoopers LLP
• KPMG

The Opposition Parties

You might have been forgiven over much of the last decade for thinking that there is no organized political opposition in Britain - at least not outside the backbenches of the Labour Party.

However, following 2005's unabashed pre-election Budget and the Labour government's return to power, the eventual replacement of Michael Howard by David "Call me Dave" Cameron as leader of the Conservative Party appears to have given the main opposition party a significant boost. Tory policy proposals are available to view and download on the Conservative Party website.

The Liberal Democrats put in another strong electoral showing in the May 2005 general election. The party now has 63 MPs.

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Government Sources

You will, no doubt, be fascinated to know that the Treasury website was actually voted the best departmental website in the 2002 Government Internet Forum Awards. Sir Humphrey would have been proud but then Sir Humphrey would probably have been fired some years ago and replaced by a spin doctor! Nevertheless, this is the place to come for everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask about the Budget. Full documentation in a mix of PDF and HTML formats is available after the event, including the content of past Budgets.

A more general introduction is on offer from Directgov - public services all in one place which brings together a wide range of public service information and services online. Produced by the Central Office of Information, Directgov provides information from across UK government departments on a variety of topics.

All the major governmental departments put their press releases online, and, while they're never perfectly up to date, you'll at least be getting the nitty gritty of the Budget straight from the horse's mouth. Your other main port of call should be HM Revenue & Customs, which will contain reports on how various aspects of the Budget affect you and your finances.

Younger Budget aficionados may prefer to check of The Red Box, a site designed specifically to explain the Budget to 7-16 year-olds. This has also won an award - the Personal Finance Education Group Quality Mark.

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Economic Analysts

The intellectual economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies are always worth keeping an eye on. The independent economic think tank puts much effort into analyzing the effects of the Chancellor's Budgets and discovering what they really mean - something you can't always count on Gordon Brown to explain.

If you want to get under the bonnet of the economy yourself, check out the ITEM Club. The ITEM Club is unique in that it uses the same economic model for its UK forecasts as the UK Government's Treasury uses for its policy analysis and Budget forecasts (ITEM stands for 'Independent Treasury Economic Model').

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research is Britain's longest established independent economic research institute. It is independent of all party political interests.

The Trades Union Congress, which includes member unions representing around 6.5 million workers, also offers its own analysis and comment on the Budget.

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