Chancellor George Osborne is expected to unveil plans for an income tax cut worth around £45 a year in his Budget as he battles to offer voters some good news amid grim economic statistics.

He is tipped to announce that the amount people can earn tax free will rise by £600 from April 2012, benefiting 25 million people and taking 250,000 out of income tax altogether.

Some reports also suggest that a "headline-grabbing" move to cut fuel tax, not just scrap the planned rise, may also be on the cards.

His annual statement will also introduce help for first-time home buyers through a £250 million Treasury-backed scheme to offer equity loans worth 20% of a property.

Available to households earning less than £60,000, they would be interest free for five years, with borrowers paying 1.75% interest the year after and then 1% above inflation.

THE boss of a Bournemouth jet hire company has said he is not worried about a tax that could be imposed on private jets in today’s budget.

Chancellor George Osborne was expected to announce air passenger duty (APD) will be imposed on private jets in an effort to show the well-off are sharing the pain of the government’s austerity measures.

Rob Dore, director at Jet Hire Aviation at Bournemouth Airport, said: “It may make our own processes trickier but proportionately compared to the overall cost of flying privately, I predict it will be minimal – unless he does something completely crazy.

“It will be almost inconsequential to those that fly with us.”

Simon Howlett, quality manager from Airtime Charters, based at Aviation Park West, said: “I do not think it is going to affect the private charter business very much.

“The type of people that use private charter aircraft tend not to be affected by small increases.”

The Chancellor was also expected to freeze the duty paid by holidaymakers for flights abroad.

John Dixon, chairman and managing director of Prestige holidays in Ringwood, said: “The fact that private jet hire is having a duty put on it is very overdue in my opinion. People who choose to go on holidays have been suffering from this for too long.”

Rob Goldsmith, managing director of Bournemouth Airport said: “Freezing APD is the least the Chancellor can do as demand is clearly being impacted by this growing tax burden.

“He must do more if the UK is not to be priced out of flying.”