Written question WQ92124

A £20 million capital fund has been developed for 2024-25 to provide support to hospitality, retail and leisure businesses. The Future Proofing Fund will offer grants of between £5,000 and £10,000 to help businesses strengthen their future trading position by investing in renewable energy technology, improvements to the fabric of their premises, and upgrades to systems or machinery to reduce energy use.

Hospitality businesses are eligible for non-domestic rates relief. We are investing an additional £78 million to provide a fifth successive year of support for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with their non-domestic rates bills. This builds on almost £1 billion of support provided since 2020-21. Eligible ratepayers will receive 40% non-domestic rates relief for the duration of 2024-25, on top of our range of fully-funded permanent reliefs, which are worth £250 million annually. Our Small Business Rates Relief supports ratepayers for around 70,000 properties across Wales, with over 50,000 of these receiving 100% relief.

Visit Wales is working to boost the tourism and hospitality sector with support including capital investment funding and award-winning marketing campaigns, while the Business Wales service is available to help hospitality businesses to increase resilience and develop their business practices.