PHILIP Hammond’s first budget has been described as “boring” and “tame” by the North-East business community.

Business and political figures from the Tees Valley gathered at an event at Active House in Thornaby to watch the budget and discuss how Philip Hammond’s speech would affect the region.

Graham Robb, chair of the North-East Institute of Directors, described the budget as “boring”.

“It was necessarily boring – George Osbourne did a lot of tweaking and the government are now seeing all those changes through until Brexit.

“It was strategically sensible,” he added.

Middlesbrough businessman Andy Preston said the Chancellor looked “comfortable and happy” during his speech.

“The standout figure was that 27 per cent of tax is raised by the top one per cent – the rich have never paid so much before and the burden is starting to shift from the poor.

“There was a really strong and positive message about social democracy,” he added.

Cllr Josh Mason of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council said he was “disappointed” there was no mention of the North-East, and described it as “very much a business budget”.

“The changes for self-employed people are quite unfortunate – this area has become big for self-employed after the decline in industry, and the local authorities have being doing a lot to support businesses.

“There was no mention of housing after previous claims from the government that they were building for Britain.”

Nicola Neilson, director of Darlington-based solicitors Latimer Hinks, described it as a “fairly tame” budget.

“There was nothing there that was controversial and he was fairly even with what he was giving.”