Music to parents' ears

He's become a fiscal conductor, the Toscanini of tax. In the andante, Gordon Brown's baton tips to the City and the raptors of the finance houses - "fiscal tightening", which gives the Bank of England no excuse to push up interest rates. Then, allegro, he waves the stick in the direction of the Confederation of British Industry. A swathe is to be cut through the alleged jungle of regulations around business.

Public sector regulation is also in for further shake-up. Inspectorates are to be chopped and rationalised over coming months and there will be major impacts, which the chancellor did not spell out, on local authorities' environmental health and trading standards departments. But, mindful of the Labour party, its old commitment to equality and the succession stakes, the chancellor brings up families fortissimo, and pushes pensions. Children were his most decipherable theme and that phrase "we parents" spoke volumes about Brown's personal history as well as his ambitions.

His decision not to push up tax allowances for everyone but concentrate tax cuts on working families with children, notably lone parents, was a specific choice, egalitarian in intent. It was also a confirmation that New Labour's mantra about work being the way to welfare is going to be as forcefully sung in a third term as it has been during the past nine years.

As expected, Brown decorated what is basically a conservative budget with trills. The voluntary sector will wonder what his new national community service scheme will bring. Not much money is the answer (?150m, shared between the government and business), but also an opportunity to inculcate the volunteering habit in the young.

All those involved with children's services will note the large rhetorical attention given children in the budget. Families with children will undoubtedly be better off as a result; the budget represents a social policy choice in their favour, against which the new money for poorer pensioners and the giveaways for pensioners on council tax and free bus travel pale.

Much of what Brown announced as new child-orientated spending recapitulates what has previously been announced. But he promised "new money" for Sure Start and the National Parenting Fund. Councils are to get back value-added tax for work involving children's centres - which could be a tidy sum.

The allocation of money for primary school rebuilding (worth ?2.3bn a year by 2010) is new. The figures Brown gave for increased spending on information technology and capital equipment for school pupils were striking: from ?100 per pupil in 1997 to ?1,000 per head by 2010 - assuming Labour is re-elected, of course.

By contrast the allowance for rebuilding in further education is small, in relation to need, but Brown's announcement that the years of state or state-supported education will now extend from the age of three to the age of 18 will not just give Labour candidates something to mention on the door step - this is to embrace a commitment that will grow with the years. Worth noting is the increase in educational maintenance allowances and more money (?1.5bn over five years) for 16-18 drop outs.