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Tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses that have been forced to close can apply for grant support from the Welsh Government this week.

A pot of £180 million is being made available to businesses affected by the latest coronavirus lockdown. Applications open at 12pm on Wednesday, January 13.

The fund will remain open for at a maximum of two weeks, but will close once it has been fully committed.

The Welsh Government’s latest Economic Resilience Fund package was originally announced in December as part of £450m worth of support. It is in addition to the grants paid out via councils for businesses that pay non-domestic rates.

The fund is expected to support up to 8,000 hospitality, tourism and leisure firms impacted by the restrictions and potentially a further 2,000 in related supply chains.

According to the Welsh Government, a “typical” hospitality business in Wales with the equivalent of six full-time staff could be eligible to receive between £12,000 and £14,000 in total.

Economy Minister Ken Skates said: “Accelerating coronavirus rates meant we have had to make difficult but necessary decisions to protect people’s health and save lives. We know these decisions have a knock-on effect on our businesses and there is no doubt that latest restrictions mean very real challenges for firms who have already had to deal with so much.

“We are committed to doing all we can to protect our businesses during this very challenging time. Our package of support is the most generous in the UK and since the beginning of the pandemic more than £1.6bn of Welsh Government financial assistance has reached businesses.

“Many hospitality, tourism, leisure and non-essential retail businesses have already received payments of £3,000 or £5,000 in the last month and this additional funding will be absolutely crucial in supporting eligible businesses through the difficult weeks ahead.”

The Welsh Government has said its support has already protected more than 125,000 jobs that might otherwise have been lost.

Further information and details on how to make an application for the package of business support is available on the Business Wales website.