Over £37m in relief grants handed to Flintshire businesses in the past few weeks

Half a billion pounds of relief grants has reached 41,000 small businesses in Wales in the space of just a few weeks, the Welsh Government has said.

In Flintshire, the council said it is continuing to work with local businesses to “ensure they receive the grants and reliefs they are entitled to as quickly as possible.”

So far, the local authority has awarded £37.3m in grants and reliefs to small businesses in Flintshire. 

Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales Ken Skates has thanked local authorities throughout Wales for their work processing £508m in grant payments, ensuring “small businesses receive speedy help to deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Retail, leisure and hospitality businesses in Wales occupying properties with a rateable value of between £12,001 and £51,000 have received a grant of £25,000.

And a £10,000 grant has been paid to firms, which are eligible for small business rates relief and have a rateable value of £12,000 or less.

All eligible businesses will also benefit from a year-long rates holiday.

Work to process outstanding applications is continuing and more companies are receiving emergency coronavirus grants daily.

The £1.7bn package of support from the Welsh Government, which includes the Economic Resilience Fund, goes over and above what is available to businesses in England.

Economy, Transport and North Wales Minister Ken Skates said:

“It’s a testament to the hard of work of the Welsh Government and the incredible efforts of local authorities that half a billion pounds of vital grants has been distributed to Welsh business in such a short space of time.

This funding will be vital in helping firms in Wales deal with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

We have also recognised that firms need to be able to access financial support quickly, which is why, working with local authorities, we have made every effort to get this money into the bank accounts of businesses across Wales as quickly as possible.

We will continue to work hard to ensure the remaining applications are processed.

We have moved quickly to support our business community and while we have done much to support companies across Wales, we still need the UK Government to go further and provide the additional financial support Welsh firms need to protect jobs, get through this crisis and recover to pre-coronavirus levels of growth.”

Neil Gompertz of GPZ Automotive in Flintshire said:

“I’d like to say thank you so much for the kindness and support. You have no idea how much this is such a huge relief to me, I was so afraid that I would lose my business of 27 years.

I am immensely grateful and appreciate everything that is being done to help keep small businesses going through this terribly sad time.”

If your business has not yet applied, complete the on-line application form flintshire.gov.uk/businessrates.