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Grants of between £5,000 and £10,000 are being made available to hundreds of small and medium-sized businesses across Wales.

The Welsh Government grants will be available to businesses in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors to help them reduce their running costs.

The £20m Future Proofing Fund aims to help businesses invest in renewable energy technology, improve their premises and upgrade systems and machinery to reduce energy use.

Wales’ economy minister, Vaughan Gething, said: “The ongoing cost-of-living and cost-of-doing-business crises continues to present difficulties to businesses across Wales.

“These grants will help micro, small and medium sized businesses from the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors to make some significant changes in the way they run their operations, so they can adapt for the future.”

Rebecca Evans, Wales’ finance minister, said: “In tough times, we want to help businesses get their bills down for good. This new fund will help reduce running costs with practical support that aids long-term business planning.

“We are also providing a fifth successive year of support for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with their rates bills, at a cost of £78m.

“This builds on the almost £1bn of support provided in rates relief schemes to these sectors since 2020/21.”

The grants will be paid up to 75% of project costs, or £10,000 – whichever is the lesser amount. It is expected that the business will contribute the remaining 25% from other sources.

The fund is open to businesses based in Wales and employing people in Wales.

An eligibility checker will open in April, with applications open from May, the Welsh Government confirmed.