Yesterday @fsb_policy Westminster hosted Minister @Kevinhollinrake and @Goodbizpays for their awards, celebrating large firms that pay small suppliers fast, in full, and for free. Was lovely to hear one say, matter-of-factly: "We’re nothing without our suppliers". More!

⚡️ Small firms have seen their standing charges skyrocket - with up to 12-fold increases, in some cases 💡 ➡️ We're calling on @ofgem to ensure suppliers are more transparent in the calculation of standing charges. Read our full release 👇 fsb.org.uk/resources-page/sm…

Celebrating 50 years of representing SMEs ✍️ Writing in today’s @News_Letter, Alan Lowry, Chair of FSB’s NI Policy Unit, reflects on 50 years of FSB speaking up for self-employed and SME owners, the entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses and created jobs across the entire economy. #FSBawards get.fsb.org.uk/awards/

The behaviour of the Post Office and their officials during the Horizon scandal has been appalling. The Government must ensure those responsible for this terrible miscarriage of justice are held to account.

Today we were pleased to welcome our new Colonel-in-Chief, HRH The Prince of Wales, to The 1st Battalion, The Mercian Regiment. His Royal Highness met with Soldiers from the Battalion, and went into the Salisbury Plain in a Warrior to observe an exercise. #StandFirmSrikeHard 💪

Very sorry to hear of the passing of Lord Cotter. A sterling supporter of small businesses and what they bring to the wider economy and to their local communities.

Amid political turbulence… we’re *1 week* from a crucial #AutumnStatement With tight public £, @Jeremy_Hunt has tough choices on how to do most good = A clear focus on UK small biz/self-employed needs (not BigCo): 👊late payments 👊biz rates SME relief 👊training tax deducts

✅ Figures from our latest #SBI report found that 4 in 5 small firms provided an average of 7 days of training for each employee (83%). 🚀 This underscores the commitment of small businesses to maintaining and upskilling their workforce. Read our full release 🔗 fsb.org.uk/resources-page/sk…

This is 💯% correct from @johnredwood in @conhome. We need a supply-side budget, one that aims at boosting the country's productive capacity, building and growing businesses, and getting people back to work.

📊In todays @thetimes, we call on the Chancellor to exert pressure on big companies to pay smaller ones on time. ⏰Late payments are “pernicious” for our members. More here ⬇️ thetimes.co.uk/article/16f1b…

A pleasure to formally open @fsb_policy's new offices. Small businesses make up 99% of all firms in the UK, they are the lifeblood our economy. That’s why I’m working hard to get more SMEs exporting, supporting start-ups with loans and cutting red tape to help them grow.

We were pleased to attend the #WTOPublicForum in Geneva, looking at better supporting small business trade 🌍📦 ✅ Some very productive discussions with @SimonManleyFCDO @UKMissionGeneva and @Matthewbarbados looking at how we can break down barriers to international SME trade, and move towards greater sustainability and inclusivity.

Our new #TechTonic report looks at the ideas and technologies small businesses are introducing, and how the Government can incentivise more small firms to invest in tech adoption and innovation by: ✅ Encouraging large firms that have been awarded R&D and innovation grants to engage with small businesses in their supply chain. ✅ Providing small businesses with grant funding to automate processes where access to labour is an issue.

The Lower Thames Crossing’s planning application alone costs more than twice as much as it cost Norway to actually build the world’s longest road tunnel. And we wonder why we’re not growing… samdumitriu.com/p/a-boring-s…

We're pleased to see the Government reverse the ban on takeaway drinks 🍻 Allowing pubs and breweries to continue to sell takeaway drinks will provide them with additional revenue, and help to mitigate soaring costs. We spoke to @BBCNews 👇 bbc.co.uk/news/business-6649…

Turning a Queen chess piece♟️♟️ The accuracy is rather satisfying 👌🏼

Engineers and builders at the professional level👏

This is so true and explains brilliantly why it is in all our interests to make the effort to use cash 💷 Why should we pay cash everywhere with banknotes instead of a card ? - I have a £50 banknote in my pocket. Going to a restaurant and paying for dinner with it. The restaurant owner then uses the note to pay for the laundry. The laundry owner then uses the note to pay the barber. The barber will then use the note to pay for shopping. After an unlimited number of payments, it will still remain a £50 value, which has fulfilled its purpose to everyone who used it for payment and the bank has jumped dry from every cash payment transaction made. BUT IF I go to a restaurant and pay digitally via Card, - the bank fees for my payment transaction charged to the seller are 3%, so around £1.50 ( and so will be the fee of £1.50 for each further payment transaction ) -for the owner re laundry or - payments of the owner of the laundry shop, - or payments of the barber etc..... Therefore, after 30 transactions, the initial £50 will exist at only £5, and the remaining £45 has become the property of the bank … thanks to all of the digital transactions and fees! Use it or lose it folks… Once it’s gone we won’t get it back! Cash is king! #CashIsKing

🛍️Following today's figures showing that retail sales jumped last month, FSB's Alan Soady told @GBNEWS that the "only way out" of the cost of doing business crisis is to have policies in place that allow small businesses to keep more of the money they take to spend, invest, grow and create jobs - and ultimately, get back to economic recovery

Pleased to see that the Economic Trade Documents Act has been made law. We, alongside @iccwboUK, have been calling for paperless trade, and this law will recognise digital documents as having equal legal status to their paper equivalents. 📜