05
February
2019
|
06:22
Europe/London

BT Group contributes £6bn to London economy

Summary
BT Group is responsible for generating £1 in every £65 produced in the London economy, according to an independent report published today.

BT Group is responsible for generating £1 in every £65 produced in the London economy, according to an independent report published today.

‘The Economic Impact of BT Group plc in the UK’ report, by Hatch Regeneris, shows that the communications company generated a £6.1bn billion contribution – expressed as “Gross Value Added” (GVA)* – to the London economy during the 2017/18 financial year.

The report estimates that the equivalent of 75,400 full-time jobs in London are supported through BT’s direct employment, its spending with contractors and suppliers and the spending of its employees.

BT Group directly employs 11,400 people in London, with a further 1,400 employed as contractors. It’s estimated that BT Group supports one in every 50 employees working in London’s private sector, reinforcing its position as one of the capital’s leading employers.

The Group also spent nearly £3.3bn with suppliers based in London.

Across the UK, BT Group directly employed 94,800 people (FTE) and supported an estimated total of 290,000 full-time jobs. It also generated, in total, almost £23bn (£22.8bn) to the UK economy.

Last year, EE, the UK’s number one mobile network and part of BT Group, launched nine 5G trial sites which went live across East London. As well as these sites in East London, EE is also trialling live 5G in Canary Wharf, and new device functionality is being tested in the state-of-the-art Borehamwood test lab. EE aims to be the UK’s first mobile network to offer consumers and businesses 5G, and the 5G network is being launched in 2019 in the parts of the UK’s busiest cities.

Tim Fanning, Director at Hatch Regeneris, said: “Our analysis underlines how vast BT Group’s contribution is to the UK economy, particularly across the nations and regions.

“BT Group is almost unique in contributing to the economies of virtually every community across the UK, supporting significant levels of GVA spend and employment opportunities per region.”

The report from Hatch Regeneris comes in addition to a recent report by PWC1 which highlighted that BT Group is the 5th highest tax contributor in the UK among FTSE 100 companies, and the highest contributor among non-financial companies. The PWC report also identified BT as the largest capital expenditure investor in the UK.

Stacey King, BT Group Regional Director, London and South East, said: “London is a strategically important part of the country for BT Group. Not only does BT connect friends, families and businesses across the UK, but we also put premium fuel in the tank of the nation’s economy. The report shows that BT generates £1 in every £65 of wealth in London.

“We’re proud to be one of the capital’s largest private sector employers and investors. Our investments, including the latest 5G mobile technology through our mobile network EE, will ensure the UK continues to be one of the world’s best-connected economies.

“With 11,400 people directly employed in London, spending their salaries in local businesses, as well as regularly volunteering on activities such as our Barefoot tech literacy programme in schools, our people are at the heart of nearly every community.”

The report includes the contribution of all parts of BT Group, including Openreach, mobile network provider EE and BT’s Consumer and Enterprise divisions.

The report highlights that, across London in 2017/18, BT Group:

Directly employed a total of 12,700 people (FTE, including contractors) and supported an estimated 75,400 full-time jobs

Spent £3.3bn (£3,360 million) with suppliers based in London

Generated £6.1bn (£6,170 million) total GVA impact (including indirect and induced effects)

Directly employed 1 in every 300 employees in the private sector across London, and 1 in every 20 in the IT and Communications sectors

Supported £1 in every £65 of GVA in London’s economy and 1 in every 50 employees working in the capital’s private sector.

Across the UK in 2017/18, BT Group:

Directly employed 94,800 people (FTE) and supported an estimated total of 290,000 full-time jobs

Employees committed more than 37,000 volunteering days to worthy causes

Spent £510 million on research and development, making it one of the UK’s top investors in innovation

The full report is available at: www.bt.com/reports

ENDS

Notes to Editors

*Gross Value Added (GVA) measures the value of all goods and services produced in an economy. GVA combines wages and operating profits from companies and other organisations. Growing GVA can reflect improvements in workforce skills, productivity, R&D and innovation. The figures for BT show the value added directly through BT's services and additional value generated through BT's suppliers across the nations and regions.

1 PWC Total Tax Contribution of UK FTSE100 companies 2018. BT is:

5th highest contributor (amongst FTSE100 respondents) of UK taxes (borne and collected) – with the 4 slots above BT occupied by banks (HSBC, Lloyds, Barclays, RBS);

4th highest payer of UK wages and salaries;

2nd highest overall distributor of “value” into the UK, where value is the sum of taxes borne, taxes collected, wages and salaries paid, interest paid, and equity returns (which are available for reinvestment, dividends and pension deficit payments) ;

Highest capex investor.