OREANDA-NEWS. Ahead of its Preliminary Results next week energy firm SSE revealed it has contributed around GBP 45.4bn to the UK economy and around €4.3bn to the Irish economy over the last five years. The economic boost includes monies spent supporting the much needed upgrade of the UK’s energy infrastructure.

The study, which was commissioned by SSE and conducted by professional services firm PwC, estimated that the company contributed GBP 8.9bn and €805m to the UK and Irish economies respectively during 2015/16. The findings also show that SSE supported almost 120,000 jobs across the UK and Ireland in the last financial year.

In Scotland SSE contributed an estimated GBP 1.6bn to the Scottish economy and supported around 17,300 jobs in Scotland. Over the last five years, the energy company has contributed an estimated total of GBP 7.1bn to the Scottish economy.

It also found that in the UK, SSE’s labour productivity was around 2.4 times the UK average across all industries.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, Chief Executive of SSE, said: “SSE helps to power the UK economy by contributing around GBP 9bn every year to the economy - delivering highly skilled jobs, boosting businesses’ order books, supporting major infrastructure projects, and driving forward on the Living Wage and fair tax.

“Financial results measure a company’s annual performance but SSE’s impact on society is much wider. These figures show we contribute greatly to the overall economy helping to create and maintain jobs not just in SSE but in thousands of small, medium and large business across the UK and Ireland.”

In 2015 SSE included its economic impact within its year-end financial results for the first time to improve reporting transparency. SSE is already one of the most transparent reporting companies in the FTSE 100 and is accredited by the Fair Tax Mark for its clear and open accounting practices and approach to tax.