Written question WQ82722

We recognise the difficulties still faced by many businesses in this sector and continue to keep the regulations and guidance under regular review, with a focus on the public health data. We intend to open these remaining areas as soon as conditions allow.

A £380m package for 2021/22 has provided retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with rateable values up to £500k, and charities in Wales with a year-long business rates holiday – going beyond what has been announced in England. Around 70,000 businesses pay no rates at all in 2021-22.

In May we announced £66m support for businesses impacted by the restrictions to cover until the end of June, with a further £2.5m made available to compensate businesses following the review on the 14th June, such as indoor attractions and wedding venues, affected by the staged transition to alert level 1.

Following the First Minister’s announcement on the 18 June that our full move to alert level one is being paused for a further four weeks as a result of the delta variant, I have announced a further round of the Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) targeted at businesses that continue to be affected by Covid-19 restrictions.

The ERF will provide emergency and transition grants of up to £25k to eligible businesses to help meet their operating costs (excluding staff wages) for the period between 1st July 2021 and 31st August 2021. An eligibility checker and details on how to apply will be available on the Business Wales website from 12pm on 5th July.