The report by Regeneris Consulting highlights the huge impact of BT’s activities in the UK including its takeover of EE, which has strengthened the communications company’s position as one of the nation’s leading employers.
It revealed BT supported around 259,000 UK jobs through direct employment, spending with contractors and suppliers and the spending of employees – equivalent to one in every 95 employees working in the UK.
More than £9 billion was spent with UK suppliers.
The overall economic impact of BT and EE activities is expressed as a “Gross Value Added” (GVA)* contribution. For the UK, this combined GVA totalled £23.1 billion – equivalent to £1 in every £70 of the UK’s total GVA.
‘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.
London accounted for £6,060 million of the total GVA, Scotland £1,080 million, Wales £770 million and Northern Ireland £470 million with the remainder being shared between the English regions.
Tim Fanning, associate director of London-based 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.”
Gavin Patterson, chief executive for BT, said: “Few organisations have a more positive and direct impact on the UK economy and its many communities than BT.
“The acquisition of EE means we can invest even further, enabling people living and working in the UK 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 UK with the company’s procurement and overall expenditure and the spending of its employees.”
Earlier this year, BT announced Openreach and EE would be investing around £6 billion during 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. It is already making an investment of more than £3 billion in fibre broadband in the UK.
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.