George Osborne hoisted an 'Open for Business' sign over Britain with a multi-billion pound package to help firms fight back against the slump at home and the troubles in the eurozone.

The number in the 40 per cent tax band is expected to rise from 3.8million today by another 400,000 over the next three years, the Treasury said yesterday.

The Treasury watchdog was forced on Wednesday to defend its reputation after it again downgraded its forecasts for the British economy and the public finances.

Annual rises for teachers will be scrapped and heads given almost complete freedom to dictate salary increases in the shake-up outlined in the Autumn Statement.

We round up the main announcements in the Chancellor's speech and explore the devil in the detail to see how tax and spending changes affect you.

Adele Collinson, pictured, owns an arts and crafts busines and worries the new cap on tax-free pension contributions will hit her retirement plans.

Osborne claims the UK is open for business but beyond the hyperbole his budget statement has closed the door on chances to stimulate growth, says one entrepreneur.

George Osborne targeted workers at the top, middle and bottom of the financial heap in his Autumn statement yesterday with a raft of money-saving measures.

The 'mummy tax' accusations came after it emerged the Chancellor will impose a real terms cut on statutory maternity pay.

Pensions minister Steve Webb (pictured) warned the state of the public finances meant 'difficult decisions' had to be taken, and challenged Labour to back them.

The 'mummy tax' accusations came after it emerged the Chancellor will impose a real terms cut on statutory maternity pay.

Bassetlaw MP John Mann said the Shadow Chancellor’s response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement had damaged Mr Balls’s leadership prospects – and made Mr Miliband’s position secure.

Treasury sources said the Chancellor will have to ‘make a decision’ on what to do about business rate relief as it is due to expire next year.

The Chancellor told the Cabinet they must reduce spending every year for the next three years, as he prepared to set out a highly-political statement to the Commons.

Anyone currently in their 40s or younger would be affected by the move, which will see the state pension age rise as the average person lives longer.

The rate paid by ETF providers is currently 0.5 per cent but this will be ditched in April 2014, Chancellor George Osborne revealed in his Autumn Statement today.

In today’s Autumn Statement, the Government said it would conduct a review to be completed by the end of 2014 to ensure that Britain can help develop and test driverless cars.

NS&I has been given a higher financing target for the financial year Chancellor George Osborne revealed in the Autumn Statement today.

George Osborne did not address problems such as low levels of investment, lack of access to finance, and high energy costs.

George Osborne described the crackdown as the 'largest package of measures to tackle tax avoidance, tax evasion, fraud and error so far this parliament'.

The Chancellor unveiled a raft of upbeat data pointing to the recovery gaining momentum, with record numbers in work, borrowing falling and house prices forecast to soar by 5.2 per cent next year.

Many employers are hiring staff on contracts where they are classed as self employed, even if they are full-time employees.

In a blow for the Chancellor who used the Autumn Statement to unveil a raft of populist giveaways, 60 per cent thought it was good for ‘rich people’.

With this year's statement imminent, pension experts are pleading for a grace period for an industry that has undergone wide-ranging regulatory changes in recent years.

The age at which people can claim their state pension will rise to 68 in the mid-2030s, 69 in the late-2040s and future rises will be linked to life expectancy.

Call for a freelancer limited company structure to be set up within the tax system and for training for a new career to be tax deductable.

The Chancellor insists there will be no political tax breaks because Britain must ‘stay the course to prosperity’.

Households up and down the country are hoping Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne will come up with a couple of ‘surprise’ announcements.

The annual deficit has fallen from the record £153bn racked up by Labour in 2009-10 to £97.5bn last year, but progress has now all but stalled as tax receipts disappoint.

George Osborne's comments while delivering the 2013 Budget revived his fortunes. But it was only a confidence trick. Now, with an election just around the corner, the Chancellor is in a bind.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has very little room for manouevre in today's Autumn Statement.

Annuities which come with death benefits can be passed to loved ones tax-free if you die aged under 75, the Chancellor announced in the Autumn statement.

Income tax free personal allowance to rise to £10,600 rather than the planned £10,500 next year. Higher rate income tax threshold to rise to £42,385 next year.

The Chancellor abolished air passenger duty on all flights for children under the age of 12. It will also reduce the cost of a holiday to Spain for a family of four by £26.

The Deputy Prime Minister spurned the chance to hear the Chancellor's statement in person and instead headed to Cornwall to announce funding for coastal defences.

Autumn Statement day is always a big one in the Commons year but yesterday the fervour was particularly felt as next May’s electoral reckoning looms, writes QUENTIN LETTS.

The big omissions from a Budget or an Autumn Statement are always revealing. It used to be help for savers. This week the missing element was the squeezed middle. Not households, but firms.

Geoff Parkes, teaching fellow at Aston Business School in Birmingham, said: ‘Thus far, the scheme has accounted for less than two per cent of all lending to small firms.’

Profits made from the sale of assets such as property or shares, which are called capital gains, rose to £32.1billion last year, up from £23.5billion in 2012-13, marking their highest level on record.

IPSE, a body that represents the self-employed, believes the Chancellor could limit contracts to just a month for freelancers, after which they would be forced on to the client’s payroll.

The Chancellor has pledged to eliminate the record deficit racked up by Labour during the financial crisis and return the country to the black by the end of the decade.

Chancellor George Osborne will use tomorrow’s spending review to announce that the Health Service will receive an extra £6billion straight away – rising to £10billion a year by 2020.

Changes sparked a backlash as they were forecast by the Insitute of Fiscal Studies to take £1,000 a year off 3 million families. They have now been halted altogether.

Chancellor George Osborne has confirmed the basic state pension will rise by £3.35 to £119.30 a week from April, while the starting rate for the new single-tier version will be £155.65.

UK Sport has been handed a shock 29 per cent increase in funding, handing a boost to British athletes preparing for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo four years later.

George Osborne says household energy bills will fall by an average of £30 by 2017 as a result of reducing green levies, as outlined in his Autumn Statement this afternoon.

The NHS, defence, foreign aid and housing are set to be the big winners, but the police, transport, justice and the environment will bear the brunt, with families braced for big hikes in council tax bills.

Public funding - known as Short Money - given to opposition parties to prepare to become an alternative government is to be slashed by 19 per cent, in line with Whitehall departments.

The Prime Minister took a few seconds out from the 65-minute brief to subtly unravel the treat and pop it into his mouth like a mischievous schoolboy.

The Autumn Statement contained some good news for entrepreneurs as George Osborne pledged to carry on exempting micro companies from paying business rates.