A GWENT AM has blasted the Assembly, claiming it fails to support small businesses.

Nick Ramsay spoke out after it was revealed in the Argus last month that ten independent traders had disappeared from Monmouth in the last year.

The traders are under pressure thanks to recent increases in business rates and rental charges, along with a high concentration of big-name stores in the town.

The Monmouth AM said business rates were being set too high by civil servants in the Assembly, who had little "real knowledge of running a business".

Mr Ramsay criticised the Assembly's decision to scrap of the rural rate relief scheme last year.

He said its replacement, the small business rate relief scheme, did not "tick the boxes".

"At the end of the day it is the hardworking business people and taxpayers across Wales who pay the wages of AMs - the Assembly Government should remember that and do far more to support them," he said.

An Assembly spokesman responded by saying the replacement scheme was "much fairer" than the previous programme.

"Almost half of all businesses across Wales now benefit compared with just 21 percent of businesses in mainly rural areas that were supported previously," he added.

The spokesman said that the Assembly "consulted widely" before making the changes, and took into account requests for the new scheme to be easily accessible and available to all types of businesses.