At the FSB we are very keen to understand what is going on within our members’ businesses and the issues that they face on a day-to-day basis.

As part of that we carry out regular surveys of our members to discover things like how confident they are, whether profitability is improving and whether they are taking on staff.

We recently published the latest results of our survey work in our Wales Voice of Small Business Index for the third quarter of this year.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the latest quarterly survey was that our members in Wales are more likely to be planning capital spending than at any time since the index began back at the beginning of 2010.

Whether it is a Newport manufacturer investing in a new machine, a Caerphilly tradesman buying a new van, or a Cwmbran cafe buying a new coffee machine, it is clear that businesses here are now beginning to make real investment for the future.

That is a positive sign, and that investment should feed through into the order books of other businesses that provide those machines and vans, which should, in turn, help to support further economic growth.

But despite the positive signs of investment there are still many businesses in South East Wales that remain cautious over the short-term outlook. While business confidence remains positive in Wales it is still some way that behind the rest of the UK.

However, the fact that small companies are investing at all is especially welcome when you consider that raising finance remains a particular challenge for businesses here in Wales. If we can improve access to finance in Wales then who is to say that businesses would not be even more intent on investment in the future.