More than 57,000 loans have supported businesses across
all sectors, protecting jobs. But the retail and
construction sectors have benefitted the most,
demonstrating how government support helped those
businesses that were impacted hardest by the pandemic.
Similarly, the self-employment income support scheme
has benefitted business people across all sectors, with
97,000 people in Wales benefitting from SEISS, with an
average claim of £2,400.
Secretary of State for Wales, , said:
The pandemic has created huge uncertainty for
employees, the self-employed and business owners, but
the support UK Government has provided has brought
stability to thousands businesses across Wales.
Firms large and small in Wales have received more
than £2 billion in UK government-backed loans to
protect jobs and these businesses will help drive the
economy as we look to build back stronger from the
pandemic.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, , said:
Throughout this crisis, we have provided more than
£280billion of support to protect jobs and
livelihoods up and down the country.
We are committed to continuing to ensure jobs are
protected and opportunity is created. Companies
across Wales have benefitted from support through
government-backed loans, including a chain of pet
supply superstores, Pet Place, based in Conwy.
Sion Pritchard, managing director of Pet Place, said:
We’ve always designed our online presence to
supplement the revenue our physical stores generate,
so the sudden and vast increase in online orders
presented a major challenge. While we’ve been able to
successfully redeploy our resources, we wouldn’t have
been able to move so quickly or meet the working
capital demands of such an exercise without the
emergency funding from CBILS, particularly given the
level of investment we’ve put into our stores in the
last year.
Our overall business has been by no means immune to
the economic effects of the current pandemic but,
with the support of CBILS and our lenders, we’ve been
able to meet them head on while keeping our employees
safe and our suppliers paid in full.
At the start of Winter, the Chancellor announced that
more than a million businesses who took out a Bounce
Back Loan will now receive further protection from the
Covid crisis through flexible repayments, under the new
Pay as You Grow system, which gives businesses more
time to repay. Since then, the Government has extended
the loans schemes until March, and given businesses the
ability to ‘top-up’ their loans if they need to.
The Government has invested more than £280 billion
throughout the pandemic to protect millions of jobs and
businesses, including extending the self-employed and
furlough schemes through to April to give businesses
the certainty they need to plan over the coming months.
