the times says the chancellor has eased off austerity with a £25 billion giveaway to counter political and economic pressures. the guardian claims mr hammond is trying to mask britain's deteriorating economic situation by pledging to revive the homeowning dream. and the mail takes back it's nickname for the chancellor — eeyore — which he was given for his gloomy outlook on brexit. they have all taken slightly different takes. let's start with the financial times. a grim outlook overs ha d ows the financial times. a grim outlook overshadows housing drive. that kind of sums up the budget. some positive headlines for some people, but things not looking too good on the economic front. that's right, and that's happened with a few announcements and economic words, where he basically described the fa ct where he basically described the fact that the growth forecast had been slashed on the run—up to this

spending review period, which gave him less wiggle room to do interesting things with. when we started this budget cycle, it always begins after party conference season. begins after party conference season. the initial trajectory was that this would be a big, bold, make or break budget for the chancellor, a career show stopping budget. the fa ct a career show stopping budget. the fact that these forecasts came out at the same time meant he had limited ability to make announcements, and that set the tone for the budget, which is why he got that out the way to begin with as almost a warning shot to mp5. saying that the economy is not doing as well as expected, so downgrade your expectation a bit. the telegraph has an awful lot on the budget on its front page. outlook gloomy, but there to be proved wrong. it is relatively early

days for theresa may, but not for the conservative government. they will have wanted better headlines about the economy. of course. hammond came in saying, i'm really up hammond came in saying, i'm really up beat and positive about brexit, trying to throw off this eeyore name that he's been given for being too gloomy and downbeat. then he had to present this catastrophically bad growth forecast. these are the worst five—year growth forecast ever produced by the obr since it was set up. never have they had growth hmmfi up. never have they had growth forecast lower than 2%. this is the worst of any of the treasury forecasts as well. what is causing it? interestingly, everyone is implying it's about brexit. but it isn't. the obr has decided that our productivity and growth potential is weaker than had been thought. since

the financial crisis, it was assumed that our growth would bounce back to 2.596, that our growth would bounce back to 2.5%, but that hasn't happened. that's why the growth forecast is bad and borrowing is up, and why the outlook is bleak. let's look at some of the positives. a helping hand for first—time buyers, but even then, experts are saying, it's not as good as you think. another surprising thing about the budget, other the fa ct thing about the budget, other the fact that philip hammond cracked a few jokes, fact that philip hammond cracked a fewjokes, such as saying that he'd asked the prime minister to bring him some cough sweets. he looked really ha p py him some cough sweets. he looked really happy about that. he did. the stamp duty announcement was one of those that had been widely rumoured

that it might come about. this is to help first—time buyers. there's been a feeling within the political movement, particularly since jeremy corbyn started making key announcements around younger voters, that the conservatives were not doing enough to support younger voters, and that there was a intergenerational unfairness, particularly around housing. this was their way of trying to help them to do this, reducing the amount of tax they pay when buying their first property up to £300,000, and reducing the amount they pay on homes up to £500,000. but the obr immediately poured a little bit of cold water on it, saying it would only help 3500 people, and that it would push up house prices and was one of these things that was potentially open to misuse by people

pretending to be first—time buyers, suggesting that the only thing that would stop them is the fact they would stop them is the fact they would have to lie to their solicitors. and there is the overwhelming task of saving up for a deposit in the first place. the cartoon on the front page of the telegraph sums it up. house prices go telegraph sums it up. house prices 9° up telegraph sums it up. house prices go up because demand goes up. estate agents saying, no more than two young people at any time. if you are stoking up demand, you are feeding the problem rather than solving it. the solution lies in more supply. the solution lies in more supply. the trouble with the stamp duty cut is that it pushes up prices, and it isn't dealing with the supply issue. it isjust helping a fuel lucky people who will benefit, but doesn't address the problem. we have seen headlines about £44 billion for housing. that is not government

cash. it is slightly obscure guarantees. it is a big numberand it's not surprising the treasury wa nt it's not surprising the treasury want to push that out there. but we don't know how many homes will actually be built. the times says that hammond eases off austerity. really? they are making a lot of the idea that he has this £25 billion giveaway. but there are smoke and mirrors here, particularly with housing, the possibility that savvy javed was pushing, this £50 billion for the government to invest in a house building scheme. actually what we got was a £50 billion announcement that wasn't actually government money. it falls a long way short of what had been asked for per year. it is kind of smoke and

mirrors. it has been described as hammond's hard hat budget. there is an image of a concrete mixer there. it was a tough budget for him as well as for everyone else that it affects. he didn't have a lot to play with. he didn't. very high personal stake for him, because after his last budget in march, he put up national insurance on the self employed, and downing street basically told him to undo it, which was a humiliating reversal. he had to get this one right. that's why he was so to get this one right. that's why he was so cautious. we knew stamp duty was so cautious. we knew stamp duty was coming, so there was nothing surprising in it. apparently, he had been running it passed a lot of tory mps to make sure there was nothing they could complain about. he played

it very safe. some papers saying that this budget tells us about the brexit plans. uk faces worst decade of economic growth in 60 years. the deficit will not be wiped out until at least 2031, and we have to get to the other side of brexit. the interesting thing is that it doesn't factor in brexit really. the obr was pointing towards her florence speech, which indicated a divorce bill of about £20 billion. other indications show that it could be more than twice that. that hasn't been factored into these figures, neither has what we get from these negotiations. transition has not been pinned down, and that could really impact businesses if we don't

get that pin down before the end of the next quarter. the daily express describes it as £3 billion to speed up describes it as £3 billion to speed up the eu exit. showing that the government, it says, is willing to have no deal. i think it will add up to more than that. there was this debate between hammond and the rest of the cabinet as to whether he should put more money aside to deal with brexit. they are spinning it as good for brexit, because it shows we have this money to spend. £3 billion is not going to cut it and it smacks ofa is not going to cut it and it smacks of a massive compromise. it shows that downing street have won out. a month ago he was saying that it was irresponsible to open up the cough and spend money on brexit. let's

have a look at buzzfeed. they always have a look at buzzfeed. they always have a look at buzzfeed. they always have a slightly different take. they are very close to the ground. they are very close to the ground. they are taking the line that it is going to cut down on tax dodging by internet companies. that is something that a lot of people get angry about. and fair enough, it is profit shifting. they don't pay corporation tax because they artificially shift their profits out of the uk. that didn't grab many headlines. that's because they've been hammering away at this issue for a while. hammond been hammering away at this issue fora while. hammond is been hammering away at this issue for a while. hammond is trying to tighten up existing measures further. this is also about vat, which is another tech element of it. these platforms where people are not

paying vat they are trying to bring that into line. it is essentially digital companies which are avoiding tax. caroline, with all of your connections at number 10, you can describe what's going on in the daily mail. it's an interesting one. the idea that he is no longer this eeyore. that was his nickname because he was always so pessimistic about everything. despite everything we have heard about the growth forecasts, the daily mail has decided to go on a more optimistic picture of the budget, talking about the help for first—time buyers, which says more about the positioning of the daily mail than anything else. a lot of papers have been critical of the chancellor, who was a remain voting minister. hammond has got a kicking from that

particular camp, so the fact they have come out in favour of him shows he is in the prime minister's good books at the moment. caroline, ben, thank you for taking us through the front pages. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers. if you miss the programme any evening, you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you to my guests, caroline wheeler and ben chu. cold air isn't far away and will have an impact across northern areas by tomorrow morning. a mile day for many of us today. a lot of rain in cumbria, leading to flooding in streets like this. still some difficult travelling conditions over the next few hours. more heavy rain,

not just the next few hours. more heavy rain, notjust in the next few hours. more heavy rain, not just in cumbria the next few hours. more heavy rain, notjust in cumbria but quite widely, and some gusty winds across england and wales as well. the rain has been focused across the north of england. everything tending to sweep its weight east woods across england and wales, together with those squally winds. things calmed down a bit in the south later. further north, the winds dropped but the rain keeps going. the worst of the snow flurries will be in scotland. could make for some tricky travelling conditions for the rough hour —— the rush—hour. the worst of it will be pushing away through the morning. lots of wintry showers coming in on that wind. further south, still a bit of rain to clear

away from the extreme south—east and those squally winds as well. things turning a bit quieter as we move towards wales, the midlands and the south—west. there will be some showers around. most of the showers further north. a mixture of rain, hail, sleet and snow. most of the snow over the hills. it will be cold for scotland, northern ireland and northern england. further south, for scotland, northern ireland and northern england. furthersouth, not as warm as today, but largely dry. a cold start to friday because the winds will be lighter. a frost in the countryside. some showers around for wales, southern england. getting colder pretty much across the board. cold aircoming colder pretty much across the board. cold air coming down, north to north—westerly winds, at the weekend. this is bbc news.

i'm chris rogers. the headlines at 11: the chancellor delivers his budget, but against the backdrop of a slowing economy. philip hammond unveiled a series of measures, which he says will put the uk on a secure footing for brexit and beyond. a britain we can be proud of, a country fit for the future. i know we can't build it overnight, but in this budget today, we can lay the foundations. they call this a budget fit for the future. the reality is this government is not fit for office. the man set to take over as zimbabwe's president, emmerson mnangagwa, says the country is witnessing a new democracy. and the former bosnian serb army commander, ratko mladic, is convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity