CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond, who began his Autumn budget statement yesterday by declaring that it was ‘a Budget about more than Brexit’, ended it with a resounding cliché. “We are at a turning point in our history and we resolve to look forwards not backwards, together, to build a Britain fit for the future,” he said. We’ve heard it all before.

So what did this Budget designed to ‘build a Britain fit for the future’ amount to?

There appear to be some good things in it - although as ever with a Budget, it is hard at this stage, when detail is lacking, to gauge the full impact, or to know how much ‘new’ money is really new.

Abolition of stamp duty on homes worth up to £300,000 for first time buyers - currently two per cent on properties up to £250,000 - will be some help to those struggling to get their first foothold on York’s expensive property ladder, potentially saving them several thousand pounds.

The chancellor announced £44bn of government support for housing to help meet the target of building 300,000 new homes a year, though it is far from clear how much of this is new money. In an attempt to bring empty properties back into use, councils will also be given powers to charge full council tax on empty properties. Developers who sit on land waiting for prices to go up, meanwhile, could see it being compulsorily purchased. These are all sensible measures, though how far they will go in making a real difference remains to be seen.

On welfare, the length of time Universal Credit claimants have to wait for their first payment will drop to five weeks from six - though many would argue that is still far too long. There will also be a £1.5bn package to address concerns’ about the delivery of Universal Credit. That is unlikely to go far, however, given the sheer scale of the human hardship caused by the inefficient way the new credit has been rolled out. The NHS is unlikely to be saved by a promised £2.8bn in extra funding - that is peanuts in the face of the crippling levels of debt the ailing health service faces.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “The Chancellor promised to fix the foundations of the economy, but people struggling to make ends meet needed far more than this Budget offered.”

We agree. It was a cautious Budget by a cautious Chancellor fighting for his political life. It will do very little to ease the burden on most ordinary people struggling to get by.