Additional grants for Welsh SMEs

By Lisa Riley

Published: 16 March, 2021

Additional grants that will benefit small and medium-size hospitality businesses in Wales have been announced by the Welsh government’s First Minister Mark Drakeford.

The additional support will help eligible closed businesses with their costs up to 31 March 2021. Those with a rateable value of £12,000 or less will receive an extra £4,000 grant payment and firms with a rateable value of between £12,001 and £500,000, will receive £5,000.

The additional funding follows UK Hospitality Cymru (UKHC) having lobbied for hospitality’s smaller companies.

While welcoming the additional funding, UKHC said the best support the sector could receive would be the ability to reopen.

“It was vital that, while businesses are forced to remain closed, they received this support,” said executive director David Chapman.

“It will help our pubs, cafes and restaurants and also our smaller hotels across Wales. With things so precarious, we could always do with more but it is great that the Welsh government has listened to us,” he said.

The latest round of support comes on top of the job-supporting Economic Resilience Sector Specific Fund, which Chapman said had been “a boon for our stricken larger businesses”, that would help get them through to the end of the financial year.

With most of Welsh hospitality businesses still closed into April, Chapman said UKHC was are already back in negotiations for a further extension to these funds to help them until viable trading is re-established.

“Remember, reopening is bound to be come with restrictions like social distancing which means viability is a long way off, so it really is vital we get these businesses open as quickly as possible.”

Earlier this month, the Welsh government has extended the rent moratorium, which was due to end at the end of this month, by three months.

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