The March 2010 United Kingdom Budget, official known as Budget 2010: Securing the recovery, was delivered by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons on 24 March 2010.^[1]

The budget speech outlined the Labour Government's fiscal policies prior to the 2010 general election, which had to be called before July.

The Budget's main headlines included:

• A one-off "bank payroll tax" on bankers bonus payments, projected to be worth £2bn^[2]
• £11bn of savings across Government and a further £5bn savings from targeted spending
• Introduce a new right to open a basic bank account^[3]
• Above-inflation increases to alcohol and tobacco duties, with a pledge to redefine strong ciders in September 2010
• To reduce a previously announced fuel duty increase in April 2010, and introduce small increases at intervals
• Temporary increase in small business rate relief
• Threshold for stamp duty raised from £125,000 to £250,000 for first-time buyers for two years, and increased stamp duty on homes over £1,000,000 to 5%
• Pledge of an increase in future ISA savings limits to keep pace with inflation, and confirmed previously announced increase in ISA savings limits
• Introduction of a tax break for the British video games sector

The Chancellor aimed for public sector net borrowing to fall to 8.5% of GDP by 2011-12, and 4.0% by 2014-15. Public sector net debt was projected to increase to 73% of GDP by 2012-13.

The Treasury published the Finance Act 2010 on 1 April, running to 240 pages.^[4] After the General Election was called on 6 April, the Chartered Institute of Taxation expressed concern at the lack of time for debate on complex measures.^[5] In the event, many of the clauses announced in the Budget speech were dropped from the Bill before Parliament was dissolved.^[6]