What support is being offered to hospitality and catering businesses given that there has been a reduction in business rates relief for the sector?
We are investing an additional £78 million to provide a fifth successive year of support for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with their non-domestic rates bills next year. This builds on the almost £1 billion of support provided since 2020-21. Eligible ratepayers will receive 40% non-domestic rates relief for the duration of 2024-25. This is in addition to our range of fully-funded permanent reliefs, which are worth £250 million annually. Our Small Business Rates Relief supports ratepayers for around 70,000 properties across Wales, with over 50,000 of these receiving 100% relief.
In addition, a new £20 million capital fund is being developed for 2024-25 to provide support to help hospitality businesses future-proof their businesses. We will be providing full details on eligibility shortly.
Financial support is available from Visit Wales to those parts of the hospitality sector that form part of the tourism offer, such as high end or ‘destination’ restaurants. As a core part of the tourism offer, hospitality and restaurants feature on the Visit Wales website and in our marketing campaigns.
We are also supporting the development of skills in the sector. We are continuing to fund “The Experience Makers” campaign for 2023-24 to highlight the wide variety of career opportunities and encourage people to work in tourism and hospitality. There are now nine case study films available on the Working Wales website and a toolkit has been developed to help businesses with recruitment. The Flexible Skills Programme fund has also supported employers to train and upskill staff.
The Business Wales service is available to help hospitality and catering businesses to build more resilient businesses and develop their business practices. Business Wales provides access to a wide range of impartial information, advice and guidance including general business advice; equality and fair work; resource efficiency; international trade; mentoring and digital exploitation. Bespoke support is also provided to help businesses access more procurement opportunities; improve marketing and sales; access finance; employment, HR and skills advice.