FSB Wales Head of Wales, Ben Cottam, said: "The UK Government's decision to significantly reduce support for small businesses through the energy bill relief scheme is bitterly disappointing. Small businesses in Wales have been kept in the dark for far too long and now, at the final hour, they have effectively left them to the mercy of sky-high costs and a badly functioning market.
Having warned that one in four businesses will be considering closing, selling, or restructuring without a replacement scheme with sufficient support, some of those Welsh businesses will now inevitably be pushed into making some of those difficult decisions about their future.
Over recent days, the government had been managing expectations that support would be lessened, but we never would have anticipated it being reduced to this extent. This is a devastating blow for small businesses in Wales and across the UK, which government will need to re-think.”