John Healey delivered a “scattergun” budget that did little to boost living standards and left Britain facing “a painful second half” of the parliament, a leading economic thinktank has warned.

The Resolution Foundation said on Thursday that measures to ease household gas and electricity costs would still leave energy bills higher this year than during the last energy shock.

In a highly critical verdict on the chancellor’s efforts to provide “breathing space” for the public amid the rising prices exacerbated by the Iran war, the foundation said Healey’s budget was poorly targeted, giving the rich almost as much as the poor.

It said the subsidies to ease the rising cost of living handed the poorest half of households a gain of £158 on average this year and next, just £14 more than the £144 received by the richest half.

The thinktank’s chief executive, Ruth Curtice, said it highlighted “a complete failure to target help at those who need it most”.

In his first budget as chancellor , Healey said he would…