“Like a man treading water” was one description of Alistair Darling’s first ever Budget at the House of Commons yesterday. That may have been so, and even though the delivery was as dull as dishwater, there were still some reasons to be upbeat.

Child Poverty, and it’s eradication, featured extremely highly on the Government’s agenda, and was one of the main issues for the coming year. Changing rules for housing and council tax benefit starting in 2009 mean parents will be better off in work than on benefits Child benefit payments for the first child is to increase to £20 a week from April 2009, which is a year earlier than planned, with parents who are in work being rewarded further. Changes to tax credits meaning families with two children earning £28,000 a year will be better off by £130 a year.

The Government also plan to spend a further £8billion on affordable housing over the next 3 years. Sites have already been identified to build 70,000 new homes by 2020 on top of 40,000 new homes already planned by that date, putting the Government back on track with their plan to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Hand in hand with all the newly affordable property being built see’s a new stamp duty scheme on shared-ownership properties, with new owners not being required to pay the duty until they own 80% of the equity. All this seems admirable enough, but you do get the feeling the Government were forced into dealing with these issues sooner rather than later, mostly due to the ticking child poverty clock set by Mr. Blair and a certain Mr. Brown some years ago

“Not green enough!” was the cry from some enivornmental charities, but in fairness we may be about to see an unprecedented change. Next year’s Budget will feature a “Carbon Budget”, specifically designated to the U.K’s. target to cut emissions by 2022. The climate change levy, designed to encourage businesses to cut energy usage, will rise in line with inflation from April, with plans for 1m new jobs in environmental industries in the next two decades.

It was also stated that all non-domestic buildings will have to be zero-carbon by 2019, on top of the already announced target for all new homes by 2016, though whether this is possible remains to be seen, though the £20m in funding for the green homes initiative to help cut emissions and fuel bills may help. Plus a nice little incentive for buyers of emission-free apartments will be a saving of up to £15,000 in stamp duty tax payments.

As predicted, road tax prices will now be banded by what kind of gas guzzler you’re driving. You can expect to pay a much higher rate of duty in the first year for the most polluting car from 2010, but those with the lowest emissions will pay no tax in the first year. This seems fair, though the sense in hiking up air travel tax yet endorsing airport expansion seems a tad contradictory.

But Mr. Darling does seem to be doing his bit for the environment, though whether it is big enough remains to be seen. Saying “we are the first government anywhere in the world to introduce legal targets compelling us to take action to cut carbon emissions’ may sound impressive, but predicted figures claim the targets being put into place will only reduce carbon emissions by as little as 5% over the next 7 years.

It’s 10 years to the day that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown first promised to have halved child poverty by 2010, and guess what - the government needs to find at least £3billion more in tax credits and benefits to reach their predicted target. It seems like only last year (it was) that the then Chancellor Gordon Brown was promising sizeable increases in Working Tax Credit, and an above earnings increase in Child Tax Credit for 2008. Yet fast forward 12 months and Children’s Charity Barnardo’s already show a 200,000 rise in UK children living below the poverty line.

This put’s huge pressure on Chancellor Alistair Darling’s first budget today, who having just lost £500m due to the delay in added fuel tax shelved till the Autumn, is looking to put a sizable down payment on the money needed to halt child poverty. But any sum put forward will be a long way off the figure needed to keep up with previous Labour government pledges. Spokesperson for One Parent Families, Kate Bell, said: “we need evidence in this budget that Labour intend to keep their promise to halve child poverty by 2010. This may be tough spending for government, but it’s much tougher for the 1.5 million poor children living in one-parent families”.

The Government look to be spending a large proportion of it’s child spending on families with disabilities. Over 30% of families with disabilities live below the poverty level due to low benefits and lack of work. Currently all savings made by the Department of Work and Pensions goes straight back to the Treasury, but hopefully an agreement will be reached allowing them to keep some of the savings they accrue by finding work for the disabled. Current figures show that the Treasury gains £1.7m for every £1m spent by the Department of Work and Pensions on helping people into work.

Terry Rooney, leader of the Department for Works and Pensions, is calling for major changes in the benefits packages available for those on incapacity benefit, or deemed incapable of work in the long term. Although Mr. Darling appears to be pushing a large portion of his expendable budget towards the problem, but is this just another firefighting exercise caused by the empty promises of yesteryear?

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Alistair Darling’s first budget today promises to be Labour’s most environmentally challenging to date. With rising carbon emissions causing concern around the world, Darling’s main aim is to push through biofuel use and decarbonise road transport, introducing extra charges to heavy petrol consuming car users.

Part of the plan is to add an extra £2,000 ‘showroom tax’ to the bigger petrol drinking 4 wheeler’s, whilst meetings with the bigger car companies to inform consumers which cars let off the biggest emissions are also on the agenda. A new coloured tax disc is also in the offing, with the more environmentally orientated cars possibly paying cheaper parking rates and road tax than the bigger, carbon emitting roadsters.

The government is looking to insist on only non rainforest damaging, sustainable bio fuel being used by companies, as well as doubling the amount of bio fuel used in petrol and diesel to 5% which is great news for enivornmental charities such as the WWF and Greenpeace. Another key feature of the budget looks to be postponing the expected 2p a litre fuel rise till the Autumn, which may please punters in the short term, but will also take nearly £500million out of the budget expenditure which could have been spread around other enivornmental problem areas, which from the look of things, there could be many.