The Chancellor, in a statement to Parliament, has just revealed that the government plans to increase the personal Income Tax allowance by £600 pounds - and backdate this to the beginning of the financial year.

This is a brilliant and welcome resolution to the 10p tax fiasco and the government rightly deserves great praise for listening and for creating a wide-ranging solution. It makes people happy when they have more money in their pocket (without complicated bureaucracy) and we have a very effective message to give to voters on the door step when we are asked about what the party is doing for them.