Ahead of an announcement from the Welsh Government today, the Member of the Welsh Parliament for Aberconwy – Janet Finch-Saunders MS – has again urged the First Minister to detail a roadmap to recovery, to include “an outline of windows of opportunity for businesses in the retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors.”  

Making clear the need for a roadmap, Janet said:  

“We need a detailed plan for families, workers and businesses across Wales. As a priority, this roadmap to recovery should include an outline of crucial windows of opportunity for businesses in the retail, hospitality, leisure and tourism sectors. These sectors are the lifeblood of North Wales. 

“Crassly, the decision to now align with England shows Wales could have adopted a clear roadmap several weeks ago. The ongoing refusal by Welsh Ministers to ensure a greater alignment will only increase frustration in the sectors worst hit by the pandemic and will put more Welsh jobs at risk. 

“Instead of this realisation, we are consistently met with a barrage of back-slapping from Welsh Government over their Coronavirus support package. Plainly put, in its current guise, the ERF scheme has simply failed to deliver for many of our small local businesses with fewer than 10 employees.  

“As made abundantly clear in my virtual business forums over the last two months, our entrepreneurs want to be empowered to trade and wish for Aberconwy to bounce back better. Money is needed by our businesses to restart rather than to redevelop – a crucial difference. 

“For this reason, we urgently need better thought out support packages to restart the economy, such a new Welsh Restart Grant, as our job creators look to further bridge this period. Work on this must commence now.” 

ENDS 

Photo: Mike Petrucci on Unsplash