£45m package to train staff and help Welsh SMEs grow
A £45m package of funding that will help small businesses across Wales to grow and support thousands of people to train to work in key sectors is being made available by the Welsh Government, Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething, announced today.
As part of the package, £35m will help small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in Wales relaunch, develop, decarbonise and grow to help drive Wales’ economic recovery. The funding will support more than 1,000 business, help to create 2,000 new jobs and safeguard a further 4,000 jobs.
In a joint initiative between the Economy Minister and the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles, an additional £10m is being made available to boost Wales’ popular Personal Learning Accounts. This will enable further education colleges to deliver additional courses and qualifications which will help 2,000 people access a wider range of job and earning opportunities in priority sectors facing labour shortages.
Funding will be specifically targeted at reengaging and retraining staff to return to work in the NHS and in social care, training more HGV lorry drivers, reskilling individuals to respond to exciting new job opportunities in green construction and renewable energy, and to ensure there are more trained chefs, waiting and front of house staff to work in Wales’ thriving hospitality sector.
Ministers say the substantial package will help support Wales’ economy through the winter months.
The £35m funding for SMEs is the next phase of the Welsh Government’s approach to economic recovery and an important step towards re-establishing resilience within the Welsh economy and continued decarbonisation of Wales’ business sector.
Administered by local authorities, it provides an opportunity to kick-start and grow the economy following the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic and the UK’s departure from the EU.
Businesses will be invited to identify ways in which investment will help them re-launch their business, develop it in innovative new ways, and create new jobs.
It will also support businesses to tackle some of the major issues facing Wales, such as addressing skills gaps in some sectors, upskilling the existing workforce, ensuring fair work for employees and tackling climate change - with Ministers looking for proposals that will help Wales meet its legally binding Net Zero carbon emission target by 2050.
Businesses will be expected to match-fund any grants made available by the Welsh Government.
It’s expected the £35m funding will support around 1,000 business, helping them to create 2,000 new jobs and safeguard a further 4,000 jobs. It will help leverage £40m worth of investments by businesses themselves, which will help support the creation of 50 new enterprises.
The £10m for further education colleges will see the further expansion of Personal Learning Accounts, which will allow local colleges to deliver additional courses and qualifications to support 2,000 people to access a wider range of job opportunities and increase their earning potential in priority sectors.
These include hospitality - including chefs, catering assistants, waiting and front of house staff.
Since the start of the COVID pandemic, Ministers have invested more than £2.5bn in emergency business support, helping protect in excess of 160,000 jobs which might otherwise have been lost.
The £35m SME funding will further boost existing local authority business support grants and will begin to open for applications in November. Applications will need to be made direct to local authorities once their individual grant schemes open.
Read the announcement in full on Gov.Wales.
Next steps confirmed to tackle impact of second home ownership on Wales’ communities
Climate Change Minister Julie James has just revealed details of a pilot scheme to tackle the impact second home ownership is having on some Welsh communities.
Speaking in the Senedd, the Minister confirmed the pilot will bring together a range of actions to address the impacts large numbers of second homes and short-term holiday lets can have.
The Minister told MSs that Dwyfor had been chosen for a pilot which will launch in January with support from Gwynedd Council.
The first phase of the pilot will build on the practical support Welsh Government is already providing to address affordability and availability of housing and will be tailored to suit the needs of people in the area. More details will be confirmed following the Budget, with the Minister keen to look at shared equity schemes, rental solutions and what we do with empty homes.
Two dedicated posts will support delivery of the pilot in the areas to link the interventions, engage with communities and maximise the impact.
The Minister also launched a consultation on proposed planning changes.
This will seek views on the use of ‘class order’ in planning which would allow local planning authorities to require planning applications for additional second homes and short-term holiday lets in areas where they are causing significant difficulties for communities.
The consultation will shape the second phase of the pilot which could involve making changes to planning, taxation and tourism systems.
Speaking in the Senedd, Minister for Climate Change, Julie James said:
“We want young people to have a realistic prospect of buying or renting affordable homes in the places they have grown up so they can live and work in their local communities.
“High numbers of second and holiday homes in one area can threaten the Welsh language in its heartlands and affect the sustainability of some rural areas.
“We are a welcoming nation and tourism is a major part in our economy bringing jobs and income to many parts of Wales. But we don’t want ghost villages in seasonal holiday spots – places where no one’s at home in the winter months.
“These are complex issues and there are no quick fixes. What may be right for one community may not work for another. We will need to bring forward a range of actions, there is no one silver bullet here!”
In addition, the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles announced the launch of a consultation on additional measures tailored specifically for those communities in which the Welsh language is widely spoken.
This will form the basis of the Welsh Government’s Welsh Language Communities Housing Plan, and will play an important part in maintaining Welsh-speaking communities as places that facilitate the use of the language.
Read the announcement in full on Gov.Wales.
Useful COVID-19 information
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