Chancellor George Osborne expected to offer voters good news in 2011 budget

He is tipped to announce that the amount people can earn tax free will rise by £600 from April 2012, benefiting 25 million people and taking 250,000 out of income tax altogether.

His annual statement will also introduce help for first-time home buyers through a £250 million Treasury-backed scheme to offer equity loans worth 20% of a property. Available to households earning less than £60,000, they would be interest free for five years, with borrowers paying 1.75% interest the year after and then 1% above inflation.

Mr Osborne has promised the public will not be asked to swallow any further tax hikes or spending cuts, insisting that last year's £81 billion package is enough to wipe out Britain's deficit by the end of the Parliament.

And he has dismissed Labour's call for a Plan B of slower and gentler cuts, which he insists would be "a huge mistake" and risk shattering market confidence in the UK.

Motorists are hopeful the Chancellor will scrap - or at least postpone - the 1p hike in fuel duty scheduled by Labour predecessor Alistair Darling for April 1. But Labour will doubtless accuse him of not doing enough to ease the pain over prices at the pumps - currently at a record £1.40 a litre for diesel and £1.33 for petrol.

Follow today's Budget with our live blog by experts from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the global body for professional accountants from 12noon.

Our bloggers:

Gillian: Gillian is Head of Public Sector for ACCA responsible for developing policy on technical matters affecting public services and monitoring developments. She has worked for the Audit Commission where she was a Senior Policy Advisor with expertise in corporate governance, financial management and human rights and equalities.

Manos Schizas: Manos is a policy adviser with ACCA's SME (small and medium enterprises) Unit. He is editor of ACCA's Quarterly Global Economic Conditions Survey, the largest quarterly survey of professional accountants in the world.

Glenn Collins: Glenn is ACCA UK's Head of technical advisory. He and his team provide technical and business support to accountants. Glenn has been with ACCA for 10 years having previously worked for 17 years for a firm of accountants and business advisors.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury: Chas is Head of Taxation at ACCA. He is secretary to the ACCA Taxation Committee and is in regular contact with many Government departments such as the HM Revenue and Customs through formal committees and ad hoc meetings.

John Davies: John is Head of Technical and Head of Business Law at ACCA. He has a special interest in company law, insolvency and pensions matters and prepares ACCA's representations in these areas to Governments and standard-setting bodies in the UK, Ireland, Europe and globally.