Financial Support for Businesses

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 10:38 am on 15 July 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 10:38, 15 July 2020

Llywydd, I thank Carwyn Jones for that supplementary question. As I've said previously in the Assembly, in the Senedd, we have tried to use our funds to complement the help that has been available through the UK Government schemes, and microbusinesses are one of those areas that we have focused on as a result. My colleague Ken Skates launched phase 2 of the economic resilience fund, Llywydd, as I mentioned—£100 million further to assist Welsh businesses. I know that my colleague Carwyn Jones will be interested to know that when the fund closed for applications on Friday of last week, the micro fund had received 5,524 applications, and if you totalled those applications up, that would have resulted in £54.2 million being applied for from the micro fund. The sole trader fund received 453 applications in the sum of £4.4 million, and I was very pleased myself to be able to launch the start-up business fund as part of phase 2 of the economic resilience fund, a £5 million fund. It could help up to 2,000 businesses to the tune of £2,500 each. All of those are aimed exactly at the sorts of businesses that Carwyn Jones has mentioned this morning, Llywydd, and I think are examples of the way in which we have tried to use our money to fill those gaps and to focus on those businesses that have slipped through the net of the large schemes that the UK Government has put in place, and use our money to the best effect.