Building and maintaining the trust of our communities has been one of our key priorities over many years. We consider it important to be a good neighbour to our local communities and to contribute to their well-being and sustainability from our business activities and success.

We have a long track record of community engagement, supporting our local communities not only financially, through community investment and sponsorship programmes, but also through the skills, generosity and enthusiasm of our people.

We have a significant presence in many communities – with power stations and substations, offices and overhead lines, along with meters in several million homes and businesses.

We aim to conduct our activities responsibly, in a way that is considerate to local communities – minimising disturbance to people’s daily lives wherever we can.

At the heart of building and maintaining the trust of our communities is open and honest communication. That means being willing to listen to community stakeholders, encouraging feedback and doing what we say we’ll do.

Like many companies, we support our local communities through investment in sponsorships and charitable giving that benefits society or the environment.

As our presence in a community is usually long-term, we favour enduring partnerships for our community investment programmes, which allow us to deliver tangible and lasting benefits over time.

When we are planning a new development, such as upgrades to power lines, new power stations or new facilities at any of our sites, we consult closely with communities early on in the process.

This ensures that local people and organisations have an opportunity to comment on and input into our proposals before we submit an application for planning consent – and that any issues they make us aware of can be fully explored during the environmental impact assessment.