Small firms in Wales impacted by the coronavirus have yet to receive any funding from a Welsh Government grant scheme.
Grants of £10,000 and £25,000, depending on the rateable value of trading properties, form a key component of the Welsh Government’s £1.4bn coronavirus emergency business support package.
The funding followed a £20bn package of support announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week, and is a result of a Barnett Formula consequential. The emergency support is designed to support the cashflows of thousands of small firms, many who have been forced to suspend trading with concerns as to whether some will be able to survive until after the pandemic crisis.
As in England grants of £25,000 are being made available for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses occupying properties with rateable values of between £12,001 and £51,000.
It is estimated that there are up to 8,500 eligible properties in Wales. If all drawn down the total support package would be around £212m.
A £10,000 grant is also being made available to all businesses, eligible for small business rates relief, with rateable values of £12,000 or less. It is estimated that there are up to 63,500 eligible properties in Wales.
If all drawn down it would represent a total support package of around £635m.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Local authorities are working closely with the Welsh Government to administer these grants. Guidance will be available on the Business Wales website this week about how businesses can access funding. We want to be able to release this much-needed funding to firms as quickly as possible."
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A spokeswoman for FSB Wales said: "We’re getting a high volume of calls from members wanting to know how to access various types of support following announcements by 海角视频 and Welsh Government.
"There’s a significant worry that the detail for these schemes won’t follow in time to help businesses that are facing serious cash flow problems now. For example, I’ve heard from businesses who don’t know if they can manage their wage bills until the end of April when the job retention scheme is proposed to kick in.
As part of the £1.2bn package in Wales, small firms in the retail, leisure and hospitality sector in Wales will also benefit from a one year exemption from business rates.
However, in a divergence from England, those with rateable values of more than £500,000 will not be entitled to the exemption.
This will allow the Welsh Government to ring fence around £100m to develop further its own coronavirus support funding plans.
The Welsh Government said this would address emerging gaps in the 海角视频 Government’s interventions and was putting in place a fund to respond to the specific needs of businesses.
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Economy Minister Ken Skates said: "This will help meet fixed costs which are no longer covered by earned income and which are not adequately addressed by the 海角视频 Government interventions. It will also assist self-employed citizens, should 海角视频. Government not step in with direct assistance this week.
"This will be designed specifically to include social enterprises and charitable organisations which have until now relied in whole or part on revenues from trading."
As in the rest of the 海角视频 Welsh firms are eligible to up to £5m in funding from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, which is being administrated by the wholesale British Business Bank - although it doesn't apply to impacted firms with revenues of more than £43m.
However, that funding has been criticised due to the fact that while the 海角视频 Government provides lenders with a guarantee of 80% for each loan, the ultimate responsibility for the debt rests solely on the small business borrower.
Luke Davis, chief executive of SME finance provider IW Capital, said: "The Business Interruption Loan Scheme will offer a crucial lifeline for many SMEs across the 海角视频, but there will be large number who are concerned by having to guarantee the loan personally.
"This is one of the few economic eras in which a business owner could be doing everything right and still not be successful, due to some unforeseen circumstance that comes about due to what the Chancellor has called these “unprecedented times”.
Through £330bn of guaranteed lending announced by Mr Sunak, there is also a facility for larger firms. This also applies to companies in Wales.
Moreover, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme means that all 海角视频 employers with a PAYE scheme will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those that would otherwise have been laid off during the crisis.
This applies to employees who have been asked to stop working, but who are being kept on the pay roll, otherwise described as ‘furloughed workers’.
HMRC will reimburse 80% of their wages, up to £2,500 per month. This is to safeguard workers from being made redundant.
The scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to 1 March and is initially open for three months, but will be extended if necessary.
Details on support for the self-employed will be outlined later today.