£140m to support Welsh businesses

The Welsh Government is making an additional £140m available to businesses to help them deal with the economic challenges of COVID-19 and the UK’s impending exit from the EU, Economy Minister Ken Skates has announced. The funding from the third phase of the Welsh Government’s Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) will see wider support being provided to secure jobs and help businesses develop, as well as additional help for firms affected by local lockdowns.

Of this, £20m will be ring fenced to support tourism and hospitality businesses  who are facing particular challenges as they enter the winter months. Meanwhile an additional £60m will be allocated to support businesses impacted by local lockdown restrictions. 

The rest of the funding will be used flexibly to provide additional support, for example to increase lending to Welsh businesses through Development Bank of Wales initiatives and to help companies deal with the impacts of the UK leaving the European Union. The ERF has been designed to complement and build on the support offered by the UK Government. The £80m worth of business development grants will be open to micro businesses, SMEs and large businesses. 

• Micro businesses (employing between 1 and 9 people) will be able to apply for up to £10k on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10%.  
• SMEs (employing between 10 and 249 people) will be able to apply for up to £150K on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10% for small business (1-49 staff) and 20% for medium sized (50-249) business.
• Large businesses (employing 250+ people) will be able to apply for up to £250K on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 50%.  
  
• Companies that received grant funding through phases one and two of the ERF, or Non-Domestic Rate linked support, could also be eligible for phase three of the ERF. The Eligibility Checker for companies to find out if they can access funding from the third phase of the ERF will be live during week commencing 5 October.

Further details can be found here: https://gov.wales/written-statement-economic-resilience-fund-phase-3