Hammond builds for Brexit

But the growth forecast for next year was cut to 1.4% from 2.2%.

But the Chancellor Mr Hammond dismissed the calls and said voters had sent a clear message in the European Union referendum that they wanted control on migration numbers.

But the overall message of his first budget statement since taking office in June was not significantly different from those of his predecessor George Osborne who spent six years bringing down the budget deficit. However, the two-year Gilt yield climbed briefly above 0.2% before falling back to 0.176%. In addition, Hammond committed a further £1.4 billion towards the construction of 40,000 additional affordable homes. Government finances are forecast to be £122bn worse off than in the spring. This means every city in Scotland will be on course to have one.

But the change won’t be sufficient enough to hit the Tory Government’s target of reducing net inward migration to the “tens of thousands” – even by 2021, it says.

It showed that, due to uncertainties around Brexit, the Government will have to borrow more given the country is predicted to make less money than originally hoped.

Hammond offered a sweeping critique of the country’s economic landscape, and placed particular emphasis on the need to improve productivity, pointing out that the Germans, the French and the Italians had better productivity rates.

Spending large amounts on infrastructure projects, such as roads and railways, will not solve the problem, he said.

Coun Davie said: “The last Autumn Statement, now to be replaced with an Autumn Budget, clearly begins the process of creating a more innovative, more productive United Kingdom economy – one that’s fit for the 21st century”.

Hammond also announced plans to tackle the growing menace of investment scams, the majority of which are aimed at people who are saving into a pension. There were also efforts to further clamp down on tax avoidance schemes. The Personal Allowance is now £11,000 this year, and will rise to £11,500 in 2017-18.

Other measures included cutting corporation tax to 17% by 2020 and a clamp down on salary sacrifice schemes, which from April 2017, will be subject to the same tax as cash income.

“We’ve heard today there’ll be more taxes, more debt and more borrowing”.

“The outlook for family finances that lies behind the big growth in borrowing figures is also bleak, with average earnings set to be £830 lower by the end of the parliament than previously forecast”.

As had been trailed before the statement, there was £1.4 billion for affordable housing, an increase in the national minimum wage to £7.50 (which has had a subdued response), minor measures to reduce the impact of planned cuts to universal credit, a ban on letting agency fees (an Ed Miliband idea), changes in the welfare “taper” so people can keep more as they move into work and tighter whiplash compensation rules, meant to reduce the cost of vehicle insurance.