After all the cries of “getting it done!” and “levelling up!” had died down, and the imaginary billions of crisp £50 notes raised on blasts of hot air had fluttered to the floor of the House, I was left with my notes and the red book in front of me. It was hard not to ask – as far as FE is concerned – “is that it?”

The £400 million announced for FE was exactly what had already been promised. It was also exactly what had already been roundly criticised as inadequate. Sixth-form funding has been cut three times since 2010 and the base rate of funding has been stuck at £4,000 since 2013. The government recently calculated that the rate of £4,000 in 2013 amounted to £4,435 in 2019 prices – so moving it to £4,188 does not even keep pace with inflation. Costs for colleges and schools have risen significantly since 2013, and the needs of students have become more complex while at the same time the government has demanded much more of our FE institutions.

Background: Budget: capital and National Skills funding confirmed

More: FE funding promises don't go far enough, says EPI

Gavin Williamson: 'I want to make the FE sector sing'

The £1.5 billion capital investment funding announced to make good on crumbling infrastructure was another existing pledge. There was nothing for expansion to meet demand. The department recently suggested colleges could place bids for expansion to the CIF, but in the last round of bids only one out of the 1,400 successful bids was for expansion. That’s 0.07 per cent. Not exactly the kind of number the chancellor is keen on.

Apprenticeships contained little new news. Given this government’s newly found passion for redressing the inequalities their policies of the last 10 years have created, I was disappointed there was no acknowledgement of the barriers that 16-19 apprentices face through things like travel costs, loss of free prescriptions and loss of child benefit to their parents. I was hoping, for example, for some kind of young apprentices’ bursary.

The black hole in the levy has been acknowledged, but while there is a commitment to “ensure that sufficient funding is available in 2020-21 to support an increase in the number of high-quality apprenticeships in small- and medium-sized businesses”. No commitment to an actual figure – either of funding or of extra apprenticeships – was made. Sketchy.

T levels do get a mention in the red book. While the questions concerning the availability of suitable placements – both in terms of overall numbers and in geographic availability – remain unanswered, there is £95 million to be made available to providers to “invest in high-quality facilities and industry standard equipment to support the rollout of T levels”.

I note this announcement lacks the word “new” preceding it. If this is new money, then it will be welcomed, as it had been my understanding that the funding of T levels had to be met by reductions in other parts of the FE budget.

Maintenance loans for part-time learners is mentioned in the red book. It says the budget “takes into account the fiscal impacts of part-time maintenance loans not being extended to sub-degree level (level 4/5 courses) and distance learners, as announced in March 2019 and June 2019 respectively." What a convoluted way of saying tough luck.

This is another area where a government genuinely committed to raising standards for the poorest and most disadvantaged would step up. Part-time numbers have fallen 53 per cent since 2008-09 and in England the decrease in mature part-time students is even starker, at 69 per cent.

In the red book was £120 million for eight more Institutes of Technology, which I assume is the second wave of the rollout for which invitations for applications were recently announced – so nothing new there.

However, in his speech, the chancellor said he was “providing every region in the country with funding for specialist 16-19 maths schools”. Whether he has confused the two, or whether there really is a demand for such schools around the country – and a supply of maths teachers to go with them – we will have to wait and see.

Save the big one for last: a National Skills Fund of £2.5 billion. For which the Government will “…consult widely in the spring on how to use [it]”. So, we’ve announced a big wedge of money, but we don’t actually have a plan? OK.

I think I may be over-using the phrase “a frustrating lack of clarity” in the coming weeks.

Emma Hardy is the Labour MP for Kingston Upon Hull West and Hessle and a shadow minister for education