There are positive features to the 2009 UK budget, says Ann Pettifor. But many of them look meagre compared to the scale of the problems and the missing Green New Deal.

The global development and aid agency Oxfam says that today's budget is a step forward on climate change, good news on the government's aid promises, but a missed opportunity as far as tackling UK poverty is concerned.

The anti-poverty charity War on Want says that the 2009 UK budget has failed to provide a breakthrough on tax avoidance and tax havens, which cost Britain billions and contribute toward impoverishment across the world.

Progressio today welcomed the UK government’s promise to meet existing aid commitments to the world’s poorest people in 2010-11, though it expressed concern at “efficiency savings” totalling some £155 million.

Campaigners from Scotland have been proposing to UK chancellor Alistair Darling an alternative budget which does not include spending on nuclear weapons - arguing that that there are massive savings to be made.

The Methodist Church in Britain has welcomed the Chancellor’s budget commitment today to provide work or training for under 25s who have been jobless for more than a year. It has also welcomed green pledges.

Chancellor Alistair Darling's budget reveals the UK government's contradictory green credentials, according to the World Development Movement - which campaigns for global justice and action on the way climate change is hitting the world's poor.

The government’s first ever UK carbon budget reveals a disappointing lack of ambition and leadership, says British-based international development agency Christian Aid. But it welcomes Gordon Brown’s decision to protect the aid budget.