Chancellor Philip Hammond sought to ease some of the pressure on the NHS and protect small businesses from the worst effects of the rates revaluation with his last "Spring Budget".

Hospitals in England are to receive £100 million for new triaging projects to help free up hospital beds.

The crisis-hit social care system will have another £3 billion pumped into it over the next three years, with £1 billion of this available in 2017/18.

Mr Hammond said this would allow local authorities to act now to develop new care packages which help reduce "bed blocking".

A package of relief totalling £435 million was announced for small businesses hit by increases in rates.

Firms losing small business rate relief will have their monthly increase capped at £50 for a year,  pubs will receive a £1,000 discount on business rates if their rateable value is below £100,000 in 2017 (which is 90 per cent of pubs), and councils will be given a £300 million fund to deliver relief to small businesses.

To address the skills shortage new T-levels will be created to improve vocational education. There will be 15 T-level qualifications to replace the current 13,000 vocational qualifications which cause confusion for employers.

The hours for technical training will be increased and new university-style maintenance loans will be available for those pursuing vocational training at a higher level.

There would also be funding for 110 new free schools on top of the 500 announced in the autumn statement.

Mr Hammond said that people doing similar jobs and being similar wages should be paying the same amount of tax whether they were employed or self-employed.

To tackle the cost of people opting to go self-employed to pay lower National Insurance, the chancellor introduced packages to raise an extra £145m per year - but these would only costs the individual an extra 60p per week.

There was no change to previously planned upratings of duties on alcohol and tobacco, but a new minimum excise duty will be introduced on cigarettes based on a packet price of £7.35.

Mr Hammond said his budget would help "provide a strong and stable platform" for Britain's Brexit negotiations and was and laid the foundations for a "a stronger, fairer, more global Britain."