Figures reveal lack of support for Businesses in Ceredigion

I am concerned at the lack of funding to support businesses in Ceredigion under the Assembly Government’s ProAct scheme.

ProAct aims to help businesses cope with the downturn and develop staff skills ready for the upturn. The scheme provides training for employees who are on short time working, and helps businesses to keep skilled staff who may otherwise be made redundant.

However, figures I have obtained reveal that only £31,680 of funding under the scheme has been committed to help businesses in Ceredigion out of a total of £19,776,365.

While I have welcomed schemes like ProAct it is clear from the fact that unemployment is now at a 16-year high that they are not working to anywhere near the level we were promised.

The fact that only one application for funding has been approved in the whole of Ceredigion indicates a lack of awareness and raises questions about how widely publicised this scheme has been in the county.

We were promised Assembly Government help for businesses in every part of Wales. The evidence suggests this is far from the truth.