Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement last week offered hopes of spring growth for farmers, reflected the agricultural professional bodies.

It stimulated the rural economy with a promise to reform the planning system, simplify tax for small businesses and overhaul the broadband infrastructure – according to the Country Land and Business Association.

CLA South West Director, John Mortimer, said the Chancellor should be congratulated for confirming that the presumption in favour of sustainable development would stay in the National Planning Policy Framework – adding that a flexible and de-regulated planning system was essential for delivering rural growth in the short term.

"This commitment to reform is extremely welcome, as is the promised consultation on using redundant agricultural buildings for other business purposes, something the CLA has been calling for many years," added Mr Mortimer – who went on to say the CLA also supported the Chancellor's desire to simplify small-business taxation.

He commented: "The majority of our members run, own and manage small businesses and virtually all of them find the tax regime a numerical obstacle course. We encourage the Chancellor to be bold and we shall work with the Government to make sure tax simplification works in practice."

On Broadband Mr Mortimer said that the creation of the Community Rural Broadband Fund with a pot of £20 million to help provide super-fast broadband was encouraging news – although the CLA remained concerned over the 10 per cent of rural homes and businesses that would still not have access to fast and efficient broadband.

Meanwhile Tim Price, of NFU Mutual, said tax relief on business start-ups, coupled with simpler rules on employment could offer good opportunities for farmers to set up new enterprises.

He said: "We are well aware that a lot of farmers are keen to set up new enterprises such as farm shops or food processing – often to help their children establish themselves.

"A raft of measures deigned to help small business start-ups, launched as the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme, including reduced red tape, Income and Capital Gains Tax advantages and simpler employment rules should help farmers turn these plans into reality.

"Consultation on ways to make it easier for farm buildings to be used for non-agricultural purposes, such as offices of workshops, will be warmly welcomed by many farmers seeking to boost their incomes by diversifying.

"People in the countryside are also breathing a huge sigh of relief that fuel excise duty increases planned for January have been withdrawn. But the spectre of an increase in August and fuel prices already near an all-time high is a huge burden for people who live and work in the countryside."

He warned that raising the state pension age to 67 from 2026 onwards would be a blow to many country people – and reinforced the need for everyone to look at ways of supporting themselves in retirement.

Support for the Chancellor also came from the Countryside Alliance, whose Chief Executive, Alice Barnard, commented: "George Osborne has provided a much-needed boost to the rural economy by scrapping the planned rise in fuel duty and investing in projects ranging from rural broadband to countryside tourism.

"But he is pinning a lot of his hopes for growth on a simplification of the planning legislation, for which it is essential that working with rural communities is prioritised to ensure our natural environment and the British countryside is protected from over-development."