North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has today called on the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales, Ken Skates MS, to respond to the small Bed and Breakfast businesses in North Wales, who, after being led to believe that they could apply for the second phase of the Economic Resilience Fund to help them survive the Covid-19 pandemic, have now been told they are not eligible.
Mr Isherwood, who, in recent weeks, has been calling on the Welsh Government to give Bed and Breakfast businesses the financial support they need amid the pandemic, challenged Mr Skates over the matter during today’s virtual Plenary meeting of the Welsh Parliament.
He said:
“Small Bed and Breakfasts are a mainstay of many local economies across North Wales, real small businesses providing essential income for their owners. They are eligible for a Business Grant in England.
“After I questioned you three weeks ago about Welsh Government support for them, they told me they found your comments condescending and insulting. I then wrote to you stating they and the local economies they help to support are looking to you for help before it is too late.
“In your reply, you stated ‘The eligibility checker for the second phase of Economic Resilience Fund for new applications will open mid-June’. They responded ‘I understand there may be a glimmer of hope with the new Economic Resilience Fund, so fingers crossed we may all have a new option then!’.
“What have you therefore got to say to them now they have told me ‘according to the checker our business is still not eligible’?”
In his response the Minister said that Wales has “the most generous and comprehensive package of support for businesses anywhere in the United Kingdom” and that “if the businesses that you're referring to, Mark, are truly falling through the gaps, we want to help them.”
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Isherwood added:
“He can’t have it both ways. Today he told us that ‘In Wales the Welsh Government have put in place the most generous package of help for businesses in the UK’, yet three weeks ago he told us that without additional UK Government funding, it ‘would not be affordable’ to replicate in Wales the grant scheme for small Bed and Breakfasts in England.
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“Bed and Breakfast businesses in North Wales have told me that they are still not eligible for a Welsh Government grant, that they don't know what to do, that they are losing thousands of pounds each month and that there doesn’t seem to be any chance of getting guests though the door.
“The reality is the Welsh Government receives extra funding whenever the UK Government announces new money for matters in England which are devolved to Wales, but the Welsh Government then decides how and where this is spent. When the UK Government announced its Top-up grant scheme in England, this included small Bed and Breakfasts, but when the Welsh Government announced its equivalent package in Wales, this excluded small Bed and Breakfasts.”