Richmond MP Sarah Olney has slammed the spring budget, saying "There was very little in it."

Chancellor Jermy Hunt announced the spring budget today (Wednesday 6 March).

The major announcements in the budget are as follows:

• National insurance has been cut for workers by 2p, from 10% to 8%, following it already falling by 2p in last year's Autumn Statement.
• The earnings threshold for child benefit has been raised to £60,000 from £50,000.
• The windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies has been extended until 2029.
• Capital gains tax has been reduced for the higher rate of property from 28% to 24%.
• The non dom tax, which is claimed by wealthy foreign residents in the UK has been abolished but new arrivals will still not pay tax on foreign income and gains for their first four years of UK residency.
• The Household Support Fund for families in England has been extended for six months.
• Alcohol duty has been frozen.
• The 5p cut in fuel duty has been extended.
• A new British ISA has been announced to encourage people to invest more in UK assets.
• The VAT threshold for small businesses has been increased from £85,000 to £90,000.
• Funding of f £3.4bn for a new NHS Productivity Plan, pointing out how outdated IT and equipment created inefficiencies in the health service.
• There will also be new taxes on vapes.

Olney told Nub News: "I thought it was pretty dire actually, there was very little in it. 

"I thought people would have been waiting to hear something a little more ambitious, something that really acknowledges their concerns about the cost of living crisis and the NHS" 

"There was just really nothing that people could really feel that the government had got to grips with things that were really bothering people."

She added that she would have liked to have seen more focus on the NHS: " We know that there are 2.8 million people currently sitting on the waiting list for treatment who can't go to work and for those people just to get them back out into work we think that could be one of the best things for the economy short term to boost the work force.

"A more substandiatal plan focusing on issues with the NHS would have been something we would have liked to have heard about." 

She also said that the public will not see much of the benefit of the National Insurance cut: "Taxes have been going up for a long time and planned tax rises are really going to wipe out any benefit people are going to see from that cut in taxes. 

"People's everyday expenses are going up – their rent, their fuel bill, the money their paying at the till for their weekly shop.

"The National Insurance cut is barely going to touch the sides." 

Sarah added: "It's just not going to make a huge difference to the issues people of Richmond are telling me about on the doorstep – cost of living, cost of housing in Richmond is so expensive now and in Richmond we have a real issue with access to dentists and there was nothing about that in the budget that would begin to address peoples concerns."