8. What support is available for businesses in Caerphilly affected by the firebreak lockdown and the local restrictions in place beforehand? OQ55824

Thank you. As I've said to other Members, our current £200 million package of lockdown business grants is open for applications, and £40 million has already been paid to more than 14,000 business across Wales since the firebreak was introduced.

Thank you, Minister. My signal here is absolutely appalling, so I haven't been able to follow what you've been saying up until now. So, I'm going to give you some cases that I've got and you can perhaps explain what these people can do. I've been contacted by many in the six weeks that Caerphilly was in lockdown and under restrictions—by businesses whose incomes have been severely affected. One guest house owner in Caerphilly town wasn't able to access support from phase 3 of the economic resilience fund because, he told us, Business Wales's grant eligibility checker excludes self-employed sole proprietors such as himself. A hairdresser in Bargoed who's self-employed and rents her premises—the first floor of a town-centre building—didn't receive any support earlier in the year and has not been able to obtain support from the ERF phase 3 either. These are just two businesses who've contacted me sharing their frustration at the process of applying for much-needed support from the ERF phase 3, which was fully subscribed in under 48 hours after going live. What is the Welsh Government going to do to ensure that these constituents and businesses don't fall through those gaps?

I thank Hefin David for his questions. I'll be as succinct as I possibly can be. Those businesses that are registered to pay business rates will automatically receive grants. All they need to do is update their details. If they are looking towards receiving a discretionary top-up, then they'll need to make a very short application, but those awards are automatic once a business has updated their details, for any businesses that are registered for business rates up to the value of £50,000.

And then with regard to the businesses that he pointed to—those who are self-employed or sole traders—there's also the £25 million discretionary fund that's being operated by local authorities to assist those sorts of businesses. So, again, I would point them towards the local authority in Caerphilly, who are operating the discretionary fund. It's worth saying that in terms of the support that we've been able to get to Caerphilly so far as part of the economic resilience fund phase 3, more than 1,200 awards have already been made to businesses in Caerphilly. A huge number of businesses have received funding, and an astonishing 5,000 jobs have been supported through the third phase of the economic resilience fund in Caerphilly alone up to this point. That's an astonishing figure, given that the vast majority of financial support is still to get to businesses.

Thank you, Minister.