Welsh Government Update

This is referred to as the third phase of the Welsh Government's Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) and is intended to secure jobs and help businesses develop, as well as provide additional help for firms affected by local lockdowns.

This latest phase of the ERF will see £80 million being made available to support businesses with projects that can help them transition to what is termed “the economy of tomorrow”. It will require co-investment from companies and a clear plan about how they will adjust to the post-covid economy.

Of this, £20 million will be ring fenced to support tourism and hospitality businesses who are facing the challenging winter months and £60 million will be allocated to support businesses impacted by local lockdown restrictions.

The rest of the funding will be used flexibly to provide additional support, for example to increase lending to Welsh businesses through Development Bank of Wales initiatives and to help companies deal with the impact of the UK leaving the European Union.

The ERF has been designed to complement and build on the support offered by the UK Government as covered in our previous eNews.

More details are to be announced but to date, the following support has been promised:

• Micro businesses (employing between 1 and 9 people) will be able to apply for up to £10,000 on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10%.

• SMEs (employing between 10 and 249 people) will be able to apply for up to £150,000 on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10% for small business (1 to 49 staff) and 20% for medium sized (50 to 249) business.

• Large businesses (employing 250+ people) will be able to apply for up to £200,000 on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 50%.

• Companies that received grant funding through phases one and two of the ERF, or received Non-Domestic Rates linked support, may also be eligible for phase three of the ERF.

The Eligibility Checker for companies to find out if they can access funding from the third phase of the ERF will be live during the week commencing 5 October.

We recommend you also look at the Business Wales website for specific help available to your business at https://businesswales.gov.wales/coronavirus-advice/covid-19-support-business.

Please do contact us if you would like to discuss any of the support measures available to you.