National Grid 2008 Annual Report Download - page 541

BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 41927
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 25
Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/4221.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/221/4*
BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 41927
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 25 Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/4221.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/221/4*
Table of Contents
Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08
33
Relationships
We aim to enhance our relationships with all of our external
stakeholders including investors, customers, regulators,
governments, suppliers and the communities in which we
operate.
We have been active this year in communicating with equity
investors, conducting over 350 investor meetings during the
year.
One of our objectives is to increase the number of
shareholders in the US to reflect the increased size of our
US operations, and we held a presentation to US investors in
October 2007 following the completion of our acquisition of
KeySpan.
We also presented to debt investors in 15 countries across
Europe and North America, and held conference calls with
debt investors in 2 other countries during the year. Despite
turbulent market conditions, we have continued to issue
long-term debt, raising £1.6 billion during the year.
We also operate a shareholder networking programme, the
aim of which is to allow shareholders to gain a better
understanding of the business. The programme includes
visits to operational sites and presentations by senior
managers and employees.
For customers, it is important that we treat them with
respect, that we communicate clearly and that we make
interaction with them as straightforward as possible. Our
focus on customer service and operational excellence is also
a critical component of our relationship with our regulators
and governments, underpinning the building of trust with
both. This involves being responsive to the needs of our
regulators for high quality information, complying with rules
and regulations, operating in an ethical way and, most
importantly, delivering on our promises.
In the UK, we continue to work very closely with Ofgem on
the renewal of our electricity and gas transmission and gas
distribution networks, and in expanding those networks to
meet new and changing demand. In addition, we seek to
maintain a professional approach with Of
g
em in areas where
we disa
g
ree, in particular with respect to their investi
g
ation
into metering services in the UK as discussed on page 23.
In the US, we strive to achieve and maintain strong working
relationships with our state regulatory commissions and the
FERC.
Investor
relations
Our aim is to ensure that the value of our business
is reflected in our share price. We aim to make
National Grid attractive to debt investors so that
we can finance our operations as effectively as
p
ossible.
Customers,
regulators and
g
overnments
The primary concern of our customers, regulators
and governments is that we deliver a safe, efficient
and reliable service, now and into the future.
Hence our relationships reflect the quality of our
o
p
erational
p
erformance.
Suppliers
We aim to work in partnership with our suppliers,
developing constructive relationships and working
together effectively. Our objective is to develop
contractual arrangements with our suppliers that
align their interests with our own as far as
p
ossible and share financial risks a
pp
ro
p
riatel
y
.
Our objective is to use the scale and breadth of our activities
to get the best value for money from our suppliers. We have
now established a sin
g
le procurement function coverin
g
all of
our supply chain activities in the UK and the US as a key
step on the way to delivering this objective.
Durin
g
the year we implemented a new back office system in
the UK, which has improved our ability to manage
procurement activities as well as providing other benefits.
Unfortunately, relationships with certain suppliers were
temporarily hampered by teething problems with the new
system, leading to delays in payment in some
circumstances. We have resolved many of the issues that
have arisen and we continue to address those that remain,
aiming to ensure suppliers are paid on time while
maintaining appropriate financial controls.
We also aim to build on our achievements in creating
alliances with contractors in the UK to deliver construction
projects in our Transmission and Gas Distribution
businesses, benefiting from a closer and more constructive
workin
g
relationship that we believe can be achieved when
project objectives are aligned and financial risks are shared.
In addition to focusing on efficiency and value for money, we
have established clear principles and objectives concerning
the impact of our supply chain economically, socially,
environmentally and on human rights. We expect our
suppliers to address these wider areas in working with us.
Our community investment objectives include supporting
communities, developing our business, supporting our
employees and enhancing our reputation through targeted
community involvement activities. Our approach continues to
be centred on three key themes: energy and the
environment; education and skills; and community
development.
During the year, we have again reviewed our social policy to
ensure our approach to community investment remains
relevant to, and supports society’s wider social and
environmental priorities. This review has included analysis of
existing activities and best practice, both across National
Grid and externally.
We continue to use the model developed by the London
Benchmarking Group to provide a framework for measuring
and reporting our community investment contributions, by
capturing, in accordance with the model, spend against our
key themes. On this basis, we invested some £9 million in
support of community initiatives and relationships across our
operations in 2007/08 compared with £9 million in 2006/07
and £8 million in 2005/06.
We have engaged independent experts to review our
community investment activities and to ascertain whether our
work in this area meets with the needs and expectations of
relevant stakeholders. This review will also benchmark our
activities against leading UK and US peers.
In our 2008 employee en
g
a
g
ement survey, 55% (2006: 68%)
of respondents considered National Grid makes a positive
contribution to the communities in which we o
p
erate.
Community
involvement
National Grid’s role as a good corporate citizen
supports our ambitions, and is delivered through a
sustained and consistent approach.