4. What support has the Welsh Government provided to businesses affected by COVID-19 restrictions? OQ56520

We have committed more than £2 billion in support for businesses, and more than £1.9 billion of that £2 billion has already reached them. The latest package opened on Monday to applications. Further funding will follow to help businesses develop, sustain and grow.

First Minister, the latest package that you refer to was in regard to support that businesses could see for the first time when the eligibility checker opened last Monday and businesses were left disappointed and let down. I don't think it's right to dismiss the views of businesses, as I think you did to the leader of the opposition earlier today. What causes further frustration to businesses is when they keep hearing the Welsh Government repeat this line that they're offering the best business support of the UK nations, because the reality is that the offer is far more generous in Scotland and England in terms of business support under the current announcements that you've made. We know that gyms in England will receive £18,000 to reopen, and in Wales it's only up to £5,000. The hospitality sector in England have reopening grants; in Wales, we've got pubs and other eating establishments that are not able to claim because the criteria are too strict. And when it comes to the criteria, there's a long list of criteria to meet, such as providing evidence that there's a minimum of 60 per cent reduction in trade—in turnover—over the last 12 months, but many businesses simply can't do that because they've not yet had those accounts produced. You can't rewind fully the clock in terms of the business support that was missing in April in Wales, but you can address and plug the gaps in announcements going forward. So, can I ask you, First Minister, to revisit the business support schemes, ensure that they're comparable with support elsewhere in the UK, and ensure particularly that the criteria are not so strict and rigid, and business can access funding fairly and appropriately?

I don't dismiss the views of businesses, but I do dismiss the propaganda efforts of the Welsh Conservative Party, and we've just had another effort at it again. I certainly will not—[Interruption.] I certainly will not give you an undertaking that we will match what happens elsewhere in the United Kingdom, because that would mean that thousands and thousands of pounds would no longer be available to Welsh businesses. In Wales, a 10-employee hospitality business with a rateable value of £25,000 will have been eligible for more than £52,000 since December; the equivalent business in England would have received £26,000. So, if I were to match the offer in England, as the Member asks me to, I would be taking £26,000 back from that business.

He says to me that gyms will get £18,000; what percentage of businesses in England does he think get £18,000? I don't suppose he knows. It's 2 per cent. Two per cent of businesses get £18,000, and 98 per cent of businesses get nothing like it. When we are making comparisons, there is no point in the Member cherry-picking figures and then applying them in a way that simply would not operate in the real world.

I certainly don't agree with him about criteria. We are giving out major sums of public money—major. Millions and millions of pounds of public money going to businesses, as we wanted to do. But his party would be the first to complain if we were not doing that in a way that could demonstrate that those were real business, that they were entitled to that help and that the public money was being spent in a way that was defensible. That's what the criteria are there for. They're not to make it difficult for businesses to get the help they want; they are there to make sure that, here in Wales, when businesses get money from the taxpayer, that money goes to the right place and goes in a way that is defensible.

As I've said previously, I know there are many businesses that are grateful for the support they've received so far, but there must now be, I think, some recognition from the Welsh Government of the cost businesses are facing as they reopen. I come back to the hospitality sector in particular here, given all of the years I spent in the sector. For example, restocking perishable goods and bringing staff back from furlough is proving tricky, especially when many of these businesses are reliant on decent weather to open up. We know that several firms abandoned opportunities to reopen outdoors before indoor reopening was allowed, and even then, businesses can't utilise their full indoor space and are struggling to trade outdoors in poor weather. Ultimately, there's been a gap in funding. Businesses shelved plans due to the weather, and they're unable to operate at full capacity. I am grateful for the opportunity provided by the economy Minister to meet with him and other opposition party spokespeople to discuss this in two weeks' time, and I'm looking forward to working constructively on this, but there is an urgent need for flexibility of funding now to help offset the risks that businesses continue to face. So, can I add my voice to the calls of many others and press on the First Minister, and through him the economy Minister, to urgently move on this? Because businesses need the security now and not in a fortnight's time. And I'm pretty sure I can speak for Plaid Cymru when I say that we're eager to get the ball rolling now.

I recognise the points that the Member makes about the challenges that businesses face when they are resuming trading, whether that is the restocking issue, whether it is the weather, but the Welsh Government has provided help to businesses at every step of the way. I've heard allegations earlier that there was no help for businesses during the month of April, for example. At the end of March and at the start of April, we paid out more than £147 million to businesses in non-domestic rate grants. In April and the start of May, a further sum of over £24 million reached businesses through the economic resilience fund, and now there is another £66 million available to help those businesses during the rest of this month and through next month as well. I wanted to do what Mr Fletcher has suggested; I wanted to reach those businesses where the trading conditions are the most challenging and where the inevitable restrictions that are still there in order to deal with coronavirus place restrictions on what they are able to do. That's why we will have the discussions with other parties, but with businesses and business organisations themselves, to make sure that the remainder of the £200 million that we've already set aside can be targeted in that way so that those who are most affected and continue to be affected by trading conditions are able to get the maximum help we are able to offer.

Sarah Murphy.

Diolch, Llywydd, and congratulations to you and David on your election as Llywydd and Deputy Presiding Officer. First Minister, over the election campaign, businesses across Bridgend and Porthcawl got in touch with me to pass on their thanks for the way that you and your Government have handled the coronavirus pandemic throughout the last year, particularly to acknowledge the financial support that has been put in place for businesses that have had to close through the bespoke Wales-only economic resilience fund, which has saved over 160,000 jobs. Do you agree with me that if your Government had followed England's approach throughout the lockdown, as the Conservatives have so often suggested, Welsh businesses would have been left worse off and more jobs would have been lost?

I thank Sarah Murphy for that question and congratulate her on her election and for speaking in the Chamber for the first time. I met many businesses with her in the Bridgend area who went out of their way to tell us how much they appreciated the support that they had had from the UK Government and from the Welsh Government as well. It's very easy for some Members in the Chamber to amplify the voices of those people who feel they have a grievance, but the vast bulk of businesses in Wales who have had help from the UK Government and from the Welsh Government recognise the help that they have received. It may not do everything they want, it certainly doesn't wipe away all the challenges they face, but they have appreciated the help that's been available, the speed at which it's been available and the way in which it has allowed them to plot a path through the pandemic and now, hopefully, beyond it. The experience that the Member refers to I think is far, far more typical of the way that businesses in Wales have responded than some of the complaints that we heard earlier this afternoon.