Budget 2011: Why government spending plans matter

By Robin Brant
Newsbeat politics reporter

Everything you hear in the budget later will be about trying to get the UK back in the black.

Fuel tax is expected to be the headline grabber though.

The coalition is under intense pressure to use its second budget to cancel a planned rise which could see an extra 3p on a litre.

But when the chancellor stands up at 12.30pm we'll already know about tax rises on tobacco and booze.

Increases in National Insurance payments from your pay back are also coming in.

You'll need to earn a little more before you start paying income tax too.

All of those measures are a hangover from last year.

Fuel bills

That planned rise in fuel tax could be off though.

The old Labour government had announced plans to increase the tax on fuel by 1p a litre, on top of any increase because of inflation.

The coalition thinks it can afford to abandon that and at the same time score some political points by helping motorists facing rocketing fuel bills.

Also look out for technical but still important changes to planning regulations and easing up on some laws for small business.

It's all aimed at helping business and the economy grow.

There will be figures though which show the next few months aren't going to be as good as first thought.

Things aren't picking up as quickly as predicted at factories, shops and firms across the UK.

There were depressing figures out yesterday which show how rough the road ahead is.

Inflation, the cost of living, is still rising.

It's up to 4.4%.

Fuel and food are to blame but there are major international factors out of the government's control too.

That's led to pressure to increase interest rates which is good for savers but bad news for you if you want to get a loan.

The government had to borrow more than it planned in February, all to deal with that deficit.

'Too far'

Remember though that the cuts haven't really started yet.

The bulk of the planned public spending cuts unveiled by the coalition, which it argues are to deal with the vast deficit inherited from the old Labour government, don't kick in until April.

That's when they'll bite.

The politics of this budget is all about the deficit and how to get it down.

Labour thinks that the Chancellor George Osborne is cutting "too far too fast".

Labour promised a similar level of cuts but it said it would do it over a longer period.

The test of this budget will be on your pocket, a little bit, but mainly on the business you work for or the factory you work in.

The government wants "UK plc" to grow and it wants this budget to be a part of that.