As expected the economy features heavily in the 82pp document, which was print managed by St Ives, including in the foreword in which David Cameron urges the electorate to consider "which party is best placed to keep the economy strong".
From a business perspective, the manifesto mainly consists of previously-announced policies, such as the removal of Employer NICs for apprentices under 25 from April 2016 and the promise to deliver another 3m apprenticeships over the next parliament.
Other pledges include: cutting a further £10bn of red tape over the next parliament; trebling the number of Start Up Loans to 75,000; strengthening the Prompt Payment Code; and conducting a "major review into business rates" by the end of 2015.
In addition to the promise to raise the Annual Investment Allowance, other new pledges included making the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) a permanent body while expanding its role and capacity, and investing £6.9bn in the UK's research infrastructure up to 2021.
Meanwhile, plans for tough new anti-strike laws, first announced in January, would impose a threshold of 40% of all those entitled to take part in the ballot for strikes in health, education, fire and transport (as well as a majority of those who vote).
"We will also repeal nonsensical restrictions banning employers from hiring agency staff to provide essential cover during strikes; and ensure strikes cannot be called on the basis of ballots conducted years before," the document states.
Previously announced tax cuts, including raising the 40p tax threshold to £50,000 and increasing the personal allowance to £12,500, were included alongside the new promise that "nobody working 30 hours on the minimum wage [will pay] income tax on what they earn".
The Conservatives also confirmed their commitment to an "in-out referendum to be held on Britain's membership of the EU before the end of 2017" and to scrapping the Human Rights Act in favour of a British Bill of Rights that would – among other things – "stop terrorists and other serious foreign criminals who pose a threat to our society from using spurious human rights arguments to prevent deportation".
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