BT rings up £1.4 billion boost for Berkshire economy
BT has given a massive £1.4 billion boost to the Berkshire economy in the past year, according to an independent study published today.
The report, by Regeneris Consulting, highlights the huge local impact of BT’s activities including its takeover of EE, which has strengthened/reinforced the communications company’s position as one of the region’s leading employers.
It revealed BT supported around 17,500 jobs in the South East – of which around 17,500 are in Berkshire - through direct employment, spending with contractors and suppliers and the spending of employees.
1 in every 20 employees working in the private sector in the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP area was supported by the full economic impact of BT and EE.
The report has been welcomed by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).
Eddie Curzon, CBI’s director for Berkshire, said: “This latest research demonstrates the extent to which BT plays a key role in our local community. There is not a businessperson or family in this area who – directly or indirectly – is not affected by BT’s activities as a supplier of essential services, such as superfast broadband, major employer, investor or purchaser.In a competitive world, in which trade and relationships increasingly transcend regional and national boundaries, rapid and effective communications are ever more vital.”
Around 10,500 people are directly employed by BT and its EE business in the South East – equivalent to one in 20 employees working in the region’s IT and communications sector. In employment terms, BT and EE’s impact in the 2015-16 financial year was larger than the region’s insurance sector.
Around £2.59 billion was spent with South East suppliers – including more than £1 billion in Berkshire.
The overall economic impact of BT and EE activities is expressed as a “Gross Value Added” (GVA)* contribution. For the South East this combined GVA totalled £4.47 billion – equivalent to £1 in every £60 of the region’s total GVA – of which £1.4 million were in Berkshire.
‘The Economic Impact of BT and EE in the UK’ outlines the combined economic contribution of the two companies across the English regions, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the financial year 2015-16.
Tim Fanning, associate director of Regeneris Consulting, said: “Our latest analysis has shown that, together, BT and EE contributed around £1 in every £70 of economic output in the UK in 2015/16. This is clearly a very substantial combined economic footprint. Moreover, this contribution is spread throughout communities up and down the country.”
Dave Axam, BT’s regional director for the South East, said: “Few organisations have a more positive and direct impact on the local economy and the South East’s communities than BT.
“The acquisition of EE means we can invest even further, enabling people living and working in the South East to get access to the best communications - fixed line, mobile and broadband services - now and in the future.
“As well as providing the means for families, homeworkers, companies and other organisations to communicate and do business in new and exciting ways, BT is helping to support other firms and suppliers in the South East with the company’s procurement and overall expenditure and the spending of its employees.”
The report highlights that BT, including EE, in the South East was responsible for the employment of around 10,500 people and contractors in 2015-16 - with a total income of around £379 million, and provides work for a further 39,500 people through spending with businesses that supply equipment and services, as well as through the spending of its staff.
Openreach – BT’s local network business – which provides services for hundreds of communications companies and their customers, recently announced it had completed the recruitment of around 170 extra engineers in the South East to help install new lines and clear faults more quickly.
The new recruits are also working on rolling out fibre broadband to more households and businesses beyond the more than 3.7 million premises in the South East, which already have access to the high-speed technology.
BT’s investment of more than £3 billion in fibre broadband across the UK includes the company working in partnership with the Government, local authorities and other bodies to help make the technology even more widely available across the region, especially in rural areas.
In the South East, BT is the major private sector partner in fibre broadband partnerships in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey.
Earlier this year, BT announced Openreach and EE would be investing around £6 billion more over the next three years in the first phase of a plan to extend superfast broadband and 4G coverage beyond 95 per cent of the country by 2020.
The company is also aiming to make ultrafast broadband available to up to 12 million UK homes and businesses by the end of 2020 using G.fast and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies.
UK-wide, BT and EE’s total GVA contribution in 2015/16 is assessed at £23.1 billion. The company supports 259,000 jobs directly and indirectly. BT and EE’s full economic impact is equivalent to £1 in every £70 of GVA in the UK economy and one in every 95 UK employees.
The full report is available at: www.bt.com/reports
Ends
Note to Editors
*Local Enterprise Partnership area.
**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.
