MP Gideon Amos this week called for more support for small businesses following the Chancellor’s Spring Statement on Wednesday (March 26).

Mr Amos, who represents the Taunton and Wellington constituency, said: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy.

“They are the centrepiece of our high streets and our town centres and they are the biggest sector in the British economy.

“We want to see the tax on jobs, the increase in National Insurance contributions paid by employers, gone.

“We want to see business rates abolished and replaced with a better system but we did not get either of those things in the Spring Statement.”

Mr Amos said instead, the Government’s new house building plans were aiming to bring in about £10 billion to help balance the budget.

He said: “The challenge with their house building plans is they are assuming the buildings actually get built.

“A lot of the proposals they put forward will simply rack up the number of planning permissions issued.

“We have already got planning permission for 1.5 million homes which have not been built, including 13,000 homes in Somerset.

“If we just add more and more permissions to that, it is not necessarily going to deliver the houses.”

Mr Amos, who is Liberal Democrat spokesman for housing and planning, was also concerned about planning powers being taken away from local councillors.

He said: “We want to keep that democracy in place so you can still contact your councillor about planning matters in your area.”

Mr Amos also urged the Government to adopt a ‘use it or lose it’ approach with developers to ensure that homes with permission were actually built.

He said: “If we are going to unlock a lot of those houses, we need the infrastructure to go with them.

“That is why projects like the Wellington and Cullompton stations are so important as they will benefit the whole of the South West.”

Mr Amos welcomed extra money for social housing announced by the Government earlier this week.

He said: “Unlock the infrastructure, build social homes, and the number of houses that get built could be almost unlimited.”