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<p>My officials and I regularly meet with businesses across Wales, including those
in the hospitality sector, to discuss a variety of issues.</p><p>The Government provided
an unprecedented package of support of £7.4 billion through the Energy Bill Relief
Scheme (EBRS) which ended on 31 March 2023, shielding businesses and saving some around
half of their wholesale energy cost.</p><p>The EBRS was replaced by the Energy Bills
Discount Scheme (EBDS), which provides support to all eligible non-domestic energy
users paying the highest energy prices starting from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
Since the scheme was introduced, wholesale energy prices have now fallen significantly,
and inflation has fallen from its peak of 11.1% to 4%.</p><p>In addition, at Autumn
Statement 2023, the government announced that it is freezing Climate Change Levy rates
for 2025-26 to continue achieving CCL’s environmental objectives without increasing
the impact to businesses’ energy bills.</p><p>The UK Government is providing further
support to the hospitality sector by freezing alcohol duty until August 2024, and
increasing the new Draught Relief duty from the initially proposed 5% to 9.2%. In
addition, in England, we have extended the 75% relief on business rates available
to hospitality, retail and leisure businesses. I am concerned about the impact of
the cut to non-domestic rates relief for hospitality businesses proposed by the Welsh
Government in their recent draft budget.</p>
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