Direct impacts

Direct economic impacts relate to money that we receive or spend as a direct result of our business activities. Below we provide a summary of some of the main economic highlights of our performance in 2005:

• Turnover: £6,958 million
• Operating costs: £6,300 million
• Payments to employees: £402 million (including wages and salaries and pensions)
• Donations made: £60,000
• Community investment: £2.1 million
• Payments to capital providers: £240 million
• Payments to Governments: £358 million (includes corporation tax, VAT, National Insurance contributions)
• Payments to suppliers: £1bn

We received a number of grants over the course of the year, including two grants from the Department for Trade and Industry (dti), one of £10 million in relation to our Scroby Sands windfarm, and £300,000 to support our research into biomass. In additional, our new biomass plant at Steven's Croft near Lockerbie received £18 million from The Big Lottery Fund.

Indirect impacts

The provision of energy is an essential part of a modern economy. By providing a reliable and secure supply of gas and electricity to our millions of customers, we allow others to create economic value. In addition, we are a major buyer of goods and services, and the money we pay to our suppliers and employees injects over £1.5bn into the economy each year (based on an estimate of supplier spending of £1bn and employee costs of £0.4bn) We can therefore have a significant influence on the local economy, through such activities as employment, job creation, innovation and training.

In creating the essential infrastructure required to serve our different sites around the country, we also can provide direct benefits to the local community - for example, we have developed access roads to sites which are now used by local farmers.