U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne cut company taxes and the levy on banks as he squeezed welfare and announced a new national living wage in the first budget by a Tory-majority government in almost two decades.

Taunting the Labour opposition that his Conservative Party is the true champion of working people, Osborne said he’ll maintain the pace at which Britain has been reducing its budget deficit since 2010, rather than increasing it. He put back by a year the target for achieving a fiscal surplus to ease pressure on public services.

Corporation tax will be reduced to 19 percent in 2017 and 18 percent in 2020 from 20 percent this year, Osborne told lawmakers in London on Wednesday. While the chancellor pared the levy on banks’ assets, bowing to pressure from lenders that have threatened to leave London, he introduced a new surcharge on their profits. He also cut back on tax relief for so-called non-domiciled people living in Britain.

“We want Britain to move from a low-wage, high-tax, high-welfare economy to a higher-wage, lower-tax, lower-welfare society,” the chancellor told the House of Commons in London.

It’s the first time Osborne has been able to set out plans for tax and spending without being constrained by the Liberal Democrats, who lost their share of power after the Conservatives won a surprise parliamentary majority in May’s election. It’s the first budget by a Tory majority government since 1996.

David Fuller's view

I watched a confident performance by George Osborne this morning, and maintain that he is certainly the best Chancellor of the UK Exchequer that I have witnessed since 1970.

Here is a key line from this inclusive budget: “We want Britain to move from a low-wage, high-tax, high-welfare economy to a higher-wage, lower-tax, lower-welfare society.”  His policies can achieve this.

The UK is open for business and every able-bodied working man and woman in this country has the incentive and opportunity to improve their lot.