Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis 海角视频 and Welsh governments have unveiled massive financial support for businesses.
From the 海角视频’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, business rate holidays, and Wales’s £500m Economic Resilience Fund the support has provided some respite at a critical time for the economy.
But there remains cracks in the support system and thousands of entrepreneurs are facing up to this without financial backing - and many of them may not emerge on the other side.
Business groups want these gaps filled to ensure Wales can thrive again once this crisis eases.
Here are some of the groups missing out:
- Start ups: They are missing out on self employed grants due to the cut off point when companies had to of started trading. It excludes businesses set up in 2019 and 2020 of which there are 12,000 in Wales. Also those directors who are paying themselves via dividends and not wages. Start-ups also miss out on Development Bank of Wales loans with firms less than two years old not eligible.
- Non-VAT registered firms: The back up for those not receiving self employed grants was the Economic Resilience Fund but firms must be VAT registered. Only 106,000 firms out of 260,000 firms are VAT registered in Wales.
- Self catering businesses. There is concern that guidance issued as part of a crackdown on second home owners claiming business rate grants has now led to many genuine self catering businesses losing out on £10,000 grant support.
- Home workers/sublet: Those not paying business rates as they sub-let or work from a home address are also missing out on the grants.
An example of those missing out is Michelle Mellor-Edwards who runs Micky’s Professional Catering Business which has a catering franchise at Prestatyn Golf Club.
She says she has put everything into her business over four years after working for 25 years at Whitbread but now “dreads to think” what will happen if she can’t get support. She doesn’t pay rates as she sub-lets while she would have made the VAT turnover criteria but for the storms in February and then coronavirus.
She said: “After closing we followed government guidelines for furloughing team, and waited for the glimmer of hope for a grant to help us through these tough times. After four long years I have put everything into my business and worked so hard as so have my team I cannot just walk away.
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“The initial grants did not apply as I do not pay the rates as I am a franchise, we waited again with the hope that they had the small business funding from Business Wales, another four weeks, applied and have been declined as I have not hit the £85k turnover.
“I have been in close contact with Business Wales and Denbighshire County Council but struggle for help and advice. I have spent hours spent on phones, calls, e-mails, completing forms, to be told ‘no’.
“If we cannot receive support I dread to think of the outcome.”
Daily Post columnist Dylan Jones-Evans has been fighting for groups like start-ups who have fallen through the net.
He said: “The priority for me is to ensure that new businesses get the support they need to survive the next three months.
“They have been the clear losers in every programme of support that has been brought out by both the 海角视频 and Welsh Governments during the last month despite research evidence showing that they are the job creators in any developed economy.
"The good news is that politicians have finally realised this and hopefully their new interventions are not too late to help those entrepreneurs across Wales that really make the difference to many sectors and communities.”
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Mike Learmond, FSB North Wales senior development manager, said: “Whilst we’ve seen welcome interventions from Welsh and 海角视频 Government, there are a significant number of business that still fall through the cracks and are not currently provided with any support to deal with the coronavirus crisis.
“Some of the notable examples have been businesses without premises, company directors, freelancers and the most recently self-employed who have not benefitted from some of the support which has been made available.
“On the cohort of newly-self-employed and freelancers, we would like to see a replication of Scottish Government’s self-employed bursary scheme with the introduction of a Welsh scheme which provides support to those who do not currently qualify for support elsewhere.
“We will need these businesses to survive in order to ensure Wales’ economy can restart and thrive in the coming months, and for that to happen those businesses need Welsh Government to take action and support them now.”
Business leaders are calling for a new £3 million hardship fund to be set up to provide urgent help for companies who don’t qualify for any of the emergency Covid-19 support.
The plea has come from the North Wales and Mersey Dee Business Council, the umbrella body for the private sector in the region, who say many firms are falling through the cracks and are on the verge of going bust.
According to the Business Council, whose members include the Chamber of Commerce, the FSB, North Wales Tourism and Creative North Wales, it would be a “disaster” for the economy if the companies under threat were allowed to fail, creating “wholesale job losses”.
Commercial director Ashley Rogers said: “Among the businesses we are particularly concerned about are many start-up ventures less than two years old and businesses where directors are the sole employees.
“These are still not eligible for any supports from government and as a result of the Covid-19 crisis are under considerable financial pressure and many are going out of business.
“With that in mind, the Business Council is asking Welsh Government with support from the 海角视频 Government for a catch-all North Wales Regional Hardship Fund (Cronfa Caledi Rhanbarthol Gogledd Cymru) to support all those businesses that currently are not benefiting from the existing support schemes.”
Jim Jones, CEO of North Wales Tourism and Business Council Chair, said “It’s clearly obvious there are many businesses falling through the cracks and not getting any support to merely survive this enforced closure.
“North Wales Tourism welcomes this proposal by the Business Council as hopefully it will target direct help to those that desperately need it.”
Debbie Bryce, CEO of the West Cheshire & North Wales Chamber of Commerce, said: “There will undoubtedly be a substantial impact on the North Wales economy due to Covid-19, whilst businesses have welcomed the 海角视频 and Welsh Government support packages announced in recent weeks it is vital that more work is done to address the shortfall in support available to those who have fallen through the gaps.
"In particular the self-employed who have taken significant risk leaving secure jobs in the 2019/20 tax year to start their own business and those small limited companies, usually with one or two directors (and no other employees) who take a small salary through the PAYE scheme and are mainly paid via dividends as advised by their accountants.
“Welsh Government has very much encouraged start-ups in the past, they now need to step in to support these businesses or many will be lost before they’ve been given a fair chance to get off the ground.”