Businesses in South Wales Central

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales – in the Senedd at 1:39 pm on 11 November 2020.

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Photo of Ken Skates Ken Skates Labour 1:39, 11 November 2020

Well, I can say to Andrew R.T. Davies that we are currently assessing the applications that have been made so far. Indeed, money has already been awarded. As part of the economic resilience fund, phase 3 has already delivered more than £40 million of awards to businesses. There was a need to act with urgency in each of the phases. That includes phase 3. That's why we paused the process of the development grant applications, so that we can assess them swiftly, so that we can get money out to businesses. There's been some misunderstanding as to the purpose of the development grants. These are development grants; they are not emergency cash awards. That's the local business lockdown fund that is available to all businesses still. Of course, we will be learning from the applications that have been submitted so that we can shape a fourth phase of the economic resilience fund to business needs, and if that means developing a new form of development grant funding, then that will be made available to businesses. We are currently working on a mechanism for expressions of interest to be made through the Business Wales website. So, I would say to any business that intended to apply, 'Hold on to your applications and, importantly, hold on to all of your supporting documentary evidence as well because that could be crucially important in the weeks to come as we move from economic resilience fund phase 3 through to economic resilience fund phase 4.'