Philip Hammond’s autumn statement reinforced the position of Theresa May’s as a traditional Tory government – right eye on the business community, left eye on key voters, and everyone else falls through the gap in the middle.

There were some welcome measures, especially investment to improve the broadband network and some limited benefit giveaways. There was also some deft fiscal footwork to break George Osborne’s destructive austerity.

But notable in its absence was any broad vision to break through the paralysis created by Brexit, with its £122bn black hole. Especially lacking was anything to tackle the problems confronting younger people. If education is, as Tony Blair said, the best economic policy, young people are the best insurance policy.

Yet there was nothing for the education sector – even Andrew Tyrie, the bone dry Tory member of parliament who chairs the Treasury select committee, spotted that – no controls on sky high private rents and improvements to the national living wage will not benefit the under 25s at all.

Hammond’s new fiscal rules maintained a headline commitment to reducing the deficit. But he got rid of Osborne’s tight deadlines, impossible largely because of Brexit. Instead he pledged only to balance public spending ‘as early as possible in the next parliament’ and meanwhile, because of the Tories ‘credibility on public spending’, said he could increase borrowing to fund Tory pet projects. His only firm commitment was to constrain welfare spending: so everyone but the very poor is let off austerity.

Housing is one of the areas where the Tories will be congratulating themselves the most, and unjustifiably so. There have been repeated announcements on this, but the reality has never matched up. There is a widening gap between the number of new households and the total housing supply, and the shortfall is now between 232,000 and 300,000 a year. Yet the private sector is the only substantial provider – and this is unlikely to change as the chancellor brought forward the plans to sell of housing association homes.

Home ownership is a figment of the imagination for most young people. Affordable housing, which can mean anything, plummeted to only 32,110 new starts last year. For most young people private rented housing is the only option. And while the abolition of letting agency fees is welcome, the £250 to £500 saved is as nothing compared with soaring rents. They now average £902 a month nationally, £1,542 in greater London, and rise to over £1,000 a month per room in parts of the capital.

Much more is needed to meet the crisis among young working people who need affordable housing, let alone provide for the growing numbers of people sleeping rough on the streets.

Equally, there are critiques to be made of the Tories plans to boost productivity, focussing as they do on physical, rather than human infrastructure. The much-vaunted concessions on tax credits still represent a dramatic erosion in its value. And the hype over the increases to the so-called national living wage is cynical: it could be seen as a form of privatisation of poverty reduction.

However, it is the big picture that needs to worry Labour the most. Last time the Tories split and ditched a colourful leader for a greyer, safer alternative, the party went on to win in 1992. That was despite Labour being organised, coherent and relatively united. John Major focussed on where he needed to win and did so despite Labour derision and public concern about the terrible state of the National Health Service.

There is a gap where the Tory vision should be, they have no policies for younger people and there are holes in their approach to management of the deficit.

But they have targeted the big cities that make up our remaining strongholds, the grey vote and – still – the hardworking families of middle England that will deliver them an electoral majority. We need to plug these gaps. It does not help us in that task that our most experienced and talented economist is meanwhile dancing the light fantastic in Blackpool, leaving John McDonnell to hold the fort on the front bench.

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Sally Keeble is a former minister. She tweets at @sally_keeble

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