3. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:57 pm on 24 November 2020.

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Photo of Leanne Wood Leanne Wood Plaid Cymru 2:57, 24 November 2020

I'd like to highlight the frustrations of Rhondda businesses that have been left without any financial help since the beginning of the pandemic. We know businesses across Wales that have lost out after applying for the economic resilience fund. A new business in the Rhondda tell me that they've not received any support, despite losing a majority of their takings. They applied for a lockdown discretionary grant administered through the local authority and received a response saying that their application to another fund, which they hadn't applied to, had been unsuccessful. Taxi drivers are another group that haven't been catered for, and there was a Unite trade union organised demonstration today in Cardiff city centre, calling for support, and I back this campaign. Now, I acknowledge that we live in unprecedented times and that schemes have been drawn up quickly, but unless lessons are learned from what has gone wrong so far, then mistakes will be repeated and targeted support will continue not to reach the businesses that need it. So, can we have a Government statement outlining how you can review the grant system so that those cases that I've raised today can be helped and that we can ensure that businesses and people don't miss out on a financial lifeline when they really, really need it now?