The Financial Services Sector

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 17 March 2021.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 1:57, 17 March 2021

Well, Purple Shoots is a charity that helps people in Wales who can't otherwise access the affordable finance they need to start a business. They also work with self-reliant groups, creating opportunities for people furthest from employment or work. They're supporting or have supported many hundreds of small businesses right across Wales. However, they advise that although just £2 million of the hundreds of millions provided to the Development Bank of Wales would keep them lending for six years and create more than 1,500 jobs and 1,300 businesses, that funding excludes completely the client group they work with. What, if any, plans do you therefore have to make funds available for these brave, budding entrepreneurs, otherwise trapped at the starting line, where, as Purple Shoots say, 'It is so frustrating because we've seen such incredible courage, resilience and entrepreneurial thinking amongst our clients; they've kept going in the face of incredible hardship, many with no help at all, apart from the repayment holiday'?