8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the provision of funding for hospitality businesses that have been affected by recent Welsh Government COVID-19 restrictions? OQ57448

I thank the Member for that question. Llywydd, the Welsh Government has made unprecedented levels of funding available to Welsh businesses through the pandemic, including the most recent £120 million economic resilience fund and non-domestic rates packages. Registrations for the NDR support opened last week, and payments are already being received by businesses in Wales.

Thank you, First Minister. Now, you're probably aware that I'm very much in touch with my hospitality businesses here in Aberconwy, and I'm receiving so many heartrending stories. They are really struggling as a result of the restrictions that you have put in place. I have one business that's recorded a £60,000 loss; another one, £36,000 lost. This is just since Boxing Day, or, well, when the regulations came in. Last week, one of my businesses had to lay off eight members of staff, and, as you can imagine, this is not sustainable. So, the evidence from just Aberconwy proves that your grant support is now too little and much too late. In fact, numerous local businesses are being excluded. I'm not sure if you're aware, First Minister, but a number of self-catering accommodation owners have contacted me in despair because they cannot access any financial support and they've lost thousands of pounds-worth of bookings. There's a ridiculous rule that self-catering properties have to cater for 30 people or more. So, would you look into this, First Minister, about changing the eligibility rules for self-catering accommodation owners? They're a valued entity in terms of our tourism industry here. And will you consider doing exactly as our leader has asked—Andrew Davies—today, and increase some funding available, purely to help save this particular sector, and indeed many jobs? Diolch.

Llywydd, I am happy, of course, to look at the specific issue of self-catering accommodation. I'll write to the Member when I've had a chance to do that. Let me just repeat: it is not the Welsh Government that has caused the difficulties for businesses. It is the fact that we have been dealing with a wave of coronavirus that has swept across the country, causing thousands and thousands of people to fall ill, not to be available in the workplace, and not to have the confidence to go out taking advantage of what the hospitality industry has on offer. That is the root of the problem that businesses have faced, and the Welsh Government has from the beginning put significant sums of money, millions and millions of pounds, on the table. I don't know how the Member thinks she can justify the idea that the help is too late. The rules in Wales changed on 27 December, right in the middle of bank holidays for Christmas and the new year, and businesses are already receiving help from the Welsh Government.

We have been able, thanks to the actions that the Welsh Government has taken, to shorten the impact of the omicron wave in Wales, and have set out a timetable for returning us to alert level 0. We plan to do that by 28 January. The help that we announced at the end of last year had a timetable that extended to 14 February, and I've discussed this matter with the economy Minister, and despite the fact that businesses will be back trading on level 0 terms a fortnight before that help is due to end, we've decided not to withdraw any of the money that was set aside to help businesses. So, businesses will be back trading earlier than we originally anticipated, but we will sustain the full £120 million that we announced originally in order to go on providing the most generous level of help available to businesses anywhere in the United Kingdom.