£26 million to help small charities in Wales
The Welsh Government has announced that small charities within the retail, leisure and hospitality sector will receive a £10,000 business support grant to help them respond to the financial challenges of Covid-19.
This new package will support properties with a rateable value of £12,000 or below.
This includes:
• charity run shops
• sports premises
• community centres
More details on how to apply will be on the website shortly.
Economic Resilience Fund – CURRENTLY PAUSED
In its first week the second phase of the Economic Resilience Fund
received almost 9,000 requests for support. Due to the scale of demand, Welsh
Government increased the amount of funding for this phase to £300
million. The Fund is now paused following the very large number of
applications to give Welsh Government an opportunity to consider what further
support businesses, charities and social enterprises need.
Support: Grants of £10,000 for micro-businesses and sole traders, Grants of up to
£100,000 for small and medium enterprises (SME’s), Larger Welsh companies
Eligibility: Micro-business (up to 9 employees) and sole traders (employing
staff), SME’s (between 10-249 employees), Larger Welsh companies, which are of
critical social or economic importance to Wales. This element will be open to
qualifying businesses within the next two weeks.
Covid-19 Wales Business Loan Scheme
Support: Loans between £5,000 to £250,000 (maximum loan levels apply), 12
month capital and interest repayment holiday, no arrangement or monitoring
fees, 2% interest fixed for 6 years (inc. 12mth holiday)
Eligibility: Businesses who have been trading longer than 2 years and can demonstrate
that they were able to service that level of debt before the outbreak.
For further details, click on the Development Bank Wales link
Support for businesses through the Coronavirus Business Interruption
Loan Scheme
Support: Temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme will
support SMEs with an annual turnover of up to £45m, access to loans,
overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million and for up to
6 years. There are 40 accredited lenders able to offer the scheme, including
all the major banks.
Eligibility: Business is UK based, with turnover of no more than
£45 million per year and meets the other British Business Bank eligibility
criteria
For further details, click on the CBILS link
Protection for businesses who miss rent payments
Commercial tenants who cannot pay their rent because of coronavirus will
be protected from eviction, the UK government has announced. These measures
will mean no business will be forced out of their premises if they miss a
payment in the next 3 months. Please visit the GOV.UK website for further
information
Business Grant Support
Grant 1: For retail, leisure and hospitality businesses in Wales, a grant
of £25,000 will be offered for businesses in these sectors with a rateable
value of between £12,001 and £51,000.
Grant 2: For all other sectors the Welsh Government package also provides a
£10,000 grant to all businesses eligible for Small Business Rates Relief with a
rateable value of £12,000 or less.
Please note that the multiple property restriction which applies to the
SBRR Scheme also applies to this grant. Therefore, the same ratepayer may only
receive the grant for a maximum of two properties in each local authority
area.
If you are currently paying your Business Rates by Direct Debit there is
no requirement to fill in the online form because we already hold your bank
details.
If you pay by any other method or your property has a rateable value of
£12,000 or below please complete the online form and supply your bank details
- click on link to access to online form.
If you are successful, the grant will be paid directly into your bank
account.
Once you’ve made your application, we ask you to be patient in not
following-up by telephone as that will result in grants taking longer to process.
We will contact you if we need to clarify anything. We aim to process your
payment within 10 working days. We very much appreciate the major challenges
being faced by businesses, and our staff will be making every effort to get
your grant paid to you as soon as possible.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers will be able to
access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those
employees that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis, all UK
businesses are eligible.
To access the scheme businesses will need to:
designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers,’ and notify your employees
of this change - changing the status of employees remains subject to existing
employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to
negotiation
submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and
their earnings through a new online portal, this portal is not yet in place and
we will publish details as soon as they are available (HMRC will set out
further details on the information required)
HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500
per month. HMRC are working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement.
Existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers.
The Prince’s Trust and NatWest Enterprise Relief Fund
The £5 million Enterprise Relief Fund will offer grants to 18 to 30-year olds
across the UK who are self-employed and/or running their own business. In
conjunction with cash grants, the initiative will offer one-to-one support and
guidance to anyone who needs it and who may be worried about their future.
For further information, click on the Prince's Trust Enterprise Relief
link