Global giant BT still calls on the local community

The communications services business, which employs around 7,000 people in the region, spent £291m with suppliers in Yorkshire and the Humber in the year to March, 2011, and BT employees provided over 4,000 hours of volunteering activity in their communities in the region, estimated by BT to be valued at £16,000.

At BT, each area of the country has its own regional board, the purpose of which is to represent all the different lines of business at BT in the region. All members on BT’s Yorkshire and the Humber’s regional board are either based in Yorkshire or have “a passion for Yorkshire”, and are ideally at director level, explained Trevor Higgins, regional partnership director for Yorkshire and the Humber at BT, who has worked at the firm for over 40 years.

He added: “We encourage the lines of business to spend and invest as much as possible in Yorkshire and we look to get as much return on investment as possible to encourage re-investment in Yorkshire. So we work together for the good of Yorkshire.”

Around two years ago, Sheffield-based internet service provider Plusnet, which is a BT company, having being sold to the firm in January 2007 for £67m, was looking at moving its call centre operations from South Africa to India, explained Dr Higgins.

But more than 100 jobs were created when it was decided the call centre operations in Sheffield should be expanded instead. Dr Higgins said: “We worked with the local authority and the RDA [Regional Development Agency] to move them [the operations] into Sheffield. So it’s now really entrenched in South Yorkshire. We work with the public sector to create jobs.”

He added: “Those 100 people earn wages and spend their money in the local community and it is expanding. It’s a fantastic success for Sheffield and the region.” In accordance with government policy, all RDAs closed on March 31.

Meanwhile, members of BT’s Yorkshire and the Humber regional board also sit on external boards, ranging from NHS trust boards to those in the voluntary sector, to boards in the wider public sector.

Business-led charity Business in the Community, which promotes responsible business practice, and the Leeds City Region employment and skills board are just two of the organisations in which BT is involved.

“For board members, it helps them get a finer understanding of the external environment. It shows them the different ways different sectors operate and the different languages they speak. It shows your commitment to the region.”

BT says that it’s generated £998m of gross value added, including indirect and induced effects, such as employee salary spend, for the year to March 2011 in Yorkshire and the Humber, and that £1 of every £160 of GVA in the region is generated directly by BT.

“BT is a big organisation and so it is critical to the success of the region when you look at the GVA it gives”, said Dr Higgins. And local internet service providers can take advantage of BT’s network of super-fast broadband, which is being rolled out, by offering their own services via the network, he said, adding: “We will use local people wherever we can.”

West Yorkshire-based Yorkshire Packaging Systems, for example, provides BT with packaging as well as advice on the best packaging to use to protect goods.

BT’s super-fast broadband also offers provides people with the capability to start a business from home, said Dr Higgins, adding: “BT is a catalyst for stimulating opportunities for SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] locally.

“Super-fast broadband is an enabler for job creation and economic growth. We provide the infrastructure. The challenge is for SMEs to exploit it.”

BT’s local network business Openreach is making super-fast broadband available to around two thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014 using a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies.

It is also pursuing opportunities to work with the public sector to extend faster broadband into more challenging areas – mainly rural, less populated locations.

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