Businesses in hospitality, non-essential retail, leisure and tourism will be able to receive up to £5,000 during the next Wales lockdown.
Welsh Government is making an extra £110m available to support businesses affected by the alert Level 4 restrictions.
Under the new measures all non-essential retail, including close contact services and all leisure and fitness centres, will close from end of trading on Christmas Eve.
Hospitality businesses will have to shut from 6pm on Christmas Day although hotels can continue to trade until midnight on December 27.
The length of the firebreak has not yet been decided with a three week review in January.
Welsh Government said the new support package – which is addition to the £340m already available to businesses under alert level three – will help 35,500 firms.
But large businesses with a rateable value above £150,000 will not be eligible.
Who will receive funding:
- Businesses in the hospitality and non-essential retail sector that are in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) and have a rateable value of £12,000 or less will be eligible for a £3,000 payment. Tourism, leisure and supply chain businesses qualifying for SBRR will also be eligible for this support if they have greater than 40% reduction in turnover during the restriction period.
- Hospitality and non-essential retail businesses with a rateable value of between £12,001 and £51,000 will also be eligible for a £5,000 payment if impacted by the restrictions. Tourism, leisure and supply chain businesses in the same rateable value bracket will also be eligible for this support if they have greater than 40% reduction in turnover during the restriction period.
- An additional measure to previous rounds, hospitality and non-essential retail businesses with a rateable value of between £51,001 and £150,000 will also be eligible for a £5,000 payment if impacted by the restrictions. Tourism, leisure and supply chain businesses in the same rateable value bracket will also be eligible for this support if they have greater than 40% reduction in turnover during the restriction period.
- Businesses not eligible for non-domestic rates will be able to continue to apply to local authorities for a Lockdown Discretionary Grant of up to £2,000.
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Minister for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Welsh Language Eluned Morgan made the announcement at today’s Welsh Government press conference.
She said: “We are making incredibly difficult but necessary decisions to protect the health and lives of our people.
“We recognise these decisions have a knock-on effect on our economy and this will be another blow to many businesses who have had to deal with so much during this incredibly challenging year."
Ben Francis, FSB Wales Policy Chair, said: “Financial support for businesses under these extreme circumstances is always incredibly welcome.
"It is important to remember that for every small business struggling to survive there is a very human cost – business owners with a bills and a Christmas to pay for in these incredibly difficult times, and staff facing a very uncertain future.
“However, there are questions remaining from today’s announcement that Welsh Government must answer.
“For us to know whether this funding is sufficient to keep businesses viable during another lockdown, Welsh Government must make clear what period of time the funding is designed to cover. Businesses will require that certainty in order to make plans to meet their overheads.
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“Now that we have a Levels system, Welsh Government need to publish what support is available for each level, in order to help businesses prepare to come in and out of levels in the coming months. There will also be supply chain businesses that will be materially impacted and will also need to understand the support that they are entitled to.
“We are pleased to hear that some money is starting to reach hospitality businesses before Christmas – FSB repeatedly urged that with Christmas trade being wiped out for many, businesses would need government support to survive. Businesses will be having a slightly less anxious Christmas as a result.
"However, this does not change the difficult longer-term outlook that hospitality firms are facing.
"The Government has not yet indicated at all how long level 4 restrictions will last and so there is uncertainty as to whether the funding allocated will be enough to cover the businesses sufficiently if the restrictions last longer than the end of January.
"'Wet' pubs (those who don't serve food) will be particularly concerned that Welsh Government's alert levels system suggests they will not be able to trade until areas reach Level One meaning that those businesses in particular may face a deeply uncertain period ahead.
"Furthermore, there is still no detail as to how a regional approach might be adopted throughout Wales which would recognise the different rates of virus prevalence across Wales and the potentially allow for more of the economy in those areas to open up.
“Welsh Government needs to come forwards with more detail to help these firms survive, and how they will support them to do so and give them greater detail and certainty. These firms are local employers and are often the backbone of their communities - we must ensure that they are able to come out of this winter as viable businesses.”
Economy Minister Ken Skates said: “This latest package is in addition to the £340m for businesses we announced at the end of November, taking our total package of business support during this pandemic to more than £2bn.
“Our financial assistance has already helped protect thousands of companies and safeguarded 125,000 jobs. We are working hard to get funds out to businesses quickly as possible and in the last two weeks alone, almost £20m has landed in the bank accounts of our businesses.
“The vital additional support being announced today will be administered by local authorities and the Welsh Local Government Association and I want to thank them for their ongoing hard work and efforts to ensure money reaches businesses quickly.
“Sadly rising coronavirus cases mean we must take action now to drive the virus down. We recognise this is hugely challenging for businesses, but as a government, we will continue to do all that we can to protect them, our people and our communities through these difficult days.”
Eligible hospitality and non-essential retail businesses, which registered for non-domestic rate support during the firebreak will be paid directly through their local authority. All other eligible businesses and those businesses, which did not register during the firebreak, will need to do so with their local authority in January with payment following soon after.
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