The Budget has been announced and will take place on March 16. This is the more traditional date for a Budget, having seen others, before last year, take place in April, after the new tax year has already started.

There is the possibility, therefore, that this will be a meaningful one, as the previous ones have merely restated indicative measures from the pre-Budget report in November.

It cannot escape the attention that this Budget precedes the still as yet unannounced General Election, likely to be on May 5, leaving seven weeks of electioneering. The management of the UK economy is likely to be a feature of the election.

What is beyond dispute is that the country's monetary policy has been well managed by the Bank of England. A debatable point, however, is the management of the country's fiscal policy.

Having the budget before the end of the fiscal year means there are changes available to take place, in readiness for the 2005/06 tax year. One area where investors will show some interest is ISAs (Individual Saving Accounts). The Chancellor has just completed a consultation on ISA limits.

There is a hope that the originally-intended cut in allowances be withdrawn rather than extended to a later date and, further, that allowance limits be raised to encourage saving. This was a particular feature of the important Sandler review.

More than five million people intend to take out an ISA before this year's April 5 deadline, suggesting that 2004/05 may be a record year, with more than 13 million accounts opened for the first time. This is according to a research report by Intelligent Finance. When asked, 11 per cent of UK adults said that they had not used their ISA allowance, but were planning to do so before the end of the financial year. Another answer would be "the cheque's in the post".

More than one in four UK adults with saving accounts say they have already used their ISA allowance this year, underlying the fact that ISAs have now become an established part of the UK savings market.

Official figures show that 9.1 million people took out an ISA between April 6 and October 5 last year. Sadly, for my industry, it is mini-cash ISAs, not the maxi stock and share versions, which are driving high volumes of ISA applications.

Eighty one per cent of people who have taken out an ISA already this year said they had taken out a mini-cash ISA, a higher proportion than last year, when 73 per cent of ISAs opened were mini-cash.

Meanwhile, the market has had a jumpy few days, with the FTSE retreating below 5000 before another series of good results pushed the figure back into positive territory. The big bank reporting season comes to a close at the end of the week. They do not come much bigger than HSBC, and yesterday's record profit for a UK bank set the tone.

Tomorrow sees HBoS report results. This is a widely held stock, due to Halifax issuing windfall shares in its demutualisation to account holders. Friday sees Lloyds TSB announce its full year profits.

This will all mean that the major UK banks combined will have posted annual profits approaching £30bn, equivalent to £1,000 a second.

- For investment advice contact Anthony Platts on 01642 608855.

Published: 01/03/2005