Okay. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our hybrid annual general meeting being held here in Birmingham, as well, of course, as online. The format of this meeting may be evolving, but its underlying purpose and significance remain the same, for us to hear from you, our investors, and to be held accountable for the strategy and the performance of British Telecom. I'm joined here today in person by Philip Jansen, who you know, our Chief Executive, Simon Lowth, our CFO, Ian Cheshire, Chair of our Remuneration Committee, Matthew Key, here to my right, who's Chair of our Audit & Risk Committee, and Ruth Cairnie, who joined the board in April, and who, at the conclusion of today's meeting, will become our Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee, taking over from Ian.
Finally, of course, Sabine Chalmers, our Company Secretary. Also joining us remotely are the independent non-exec directors on the board who are now visible to you all. We've got Maggie Chan Jones, Iain Conn, Steven Guggenheimer, Isabel Hudson, Allison Kirkby, and Sara Weller. Adel Al-Saleh has given his apologies for today's meeting. Thank you for finding the time to be with us today, either in person or online. It's much appreciated. As ever, there are some procedural points I need to make, first, I want to address that core purpose. Let me start by sharing a couple of key numbers with you. Every year, this company boosts the U.K. economy by GBP 24 billion. That's our own direct activity and our impact on the wider economy.
To give you an example, we employ 80,000 people here in the U.K., but our activity supports the employment of more than 280,000. Secondly, the economic boost yielded by the new networks that we're building, estimates put the combined value of 5G and full fibre to the U.K. economy at more than GBP 240 billion. Flinging big numbers around isn't always as meaningful as some people like to think. Let's just reflect on the main point. This company is a vital cog in the machinery of the U.K. economy, and more importantly, the work we're doing to build new digital infrastructure is the bedrock not only of our future prospects, but those of the country as a whole. Of course, with national relevance comes responsibility. In fact, a number of critical responsibilities to different stakeholders.
I know Philip plans to address the issue of our own team. I'll focus on our customers and what addressing their needs means for shareholders. We hold this AGM at a time of intense interest and speculation about the next wave of automation and artificial intelligence. That only serves to highlight the importance of our drive to modernize our networks, our services, and the way that we operate. Our customers, be they households or household name brands, need us to help them harness and navigate this new technological age. It's not negotiable. Our transformation program is what our customers need. It's the only way for us to build a prosperous BT Group. The good news is that we do have a robust, crystal clear plan. We're sticking to it. In doing so, though, we do face two major challenges.
The first is the infamous events, dear boy. We didn't know 18 months ago that we were due to face runaway inflation and a war that has wrought havoc with global supply chains. The second is that this transformation, one of the most radical overhauls in the history of British business, is no overnight job. I spoke here last year about the importance of recognizing rather, the sheer scale of this challenge. We have a clear strategy to create a modern, world-class BT Group, we've made a solid and encouraging start, there is more, much more to do. In that context, maintaining our course and trusting our strategy are absolutely key. I'm hugely proud of the way our team has stuck to the task with such resilience and commitment over the course of the past year, building and delivering relentlessly despite the challenges.
In part, that is due to the regulatory framework set by Ofcom. This balances the dual incentives of healthy competition and fair returns, and we're committed to making it work for the whole country. Our strong operational performance and financial outturn in the last financial year mean that we were able to declare a final dividend of GBP 0.0539 per share to be paid in September this year, bringing the full year dividend to GBP 0.077 per share. Our share price has underperformed compared to last year, largely reflecting the short-term impact on our normalized free cash flow of the once in a generation investments that we're making. The market, as I'm sure you all know, is often focused on short-term cash flow, but our job is to look beyond that, making the right decisions and investments for sustained success.
Even many of the analysts who currently fight shy of our shares do fully acknowledge that we have the right strategy to transform BT Group to be more efficient, agile, and delivering next-generation networks. Once we're through our investment phase, reduced capital expenditure and more efficient operations will deliver an uplift to cash flow of at least GBP 1 billion by the end of the decade, providing solid foundations for our continued growth for many years to come. We're confident that we're on the right path, and that holders of our stock will look increasingly prescient as the months roll by. I absolutely acknowledge that a transformation of this scale calls for a commitment and a longer-term perspective from investors, as well as the board and management, and I do thank you for that.
I spoke earlier about the range of responsibilities we have, and before I move on to the more formal part of my comments, I want to address our obligation to provide access and opportunity to all of our customers. We are in incredibly, in an incredibly tough economic climate right now and one that is hitting the poorest in our society extremely hard. Rightly, the media tend to focus on food security and the cost of housing, but in our modern economy and society, digital access is equally fundamentally important. 10% of UK households lack a broadband connection, a figure that rises to 26% for the over 75s. In some cases, of course, that is by choice, but either way, it amounts to a growing social and economic exclusion. We have two key issues to address.
Firstly, although telecoms bills are a very small proportion, less than 4%, in fact, of household spending, we've taken steps to protect our lowest income customers. Last year, we had 3 million customers on fixed line and pay-as-you-go tariffs that were protected from price rises. That includes subsidized social tariffs for both broadband and mobile, and indeed, 85% of all UK consumers on a social tariff are with BT. Secondly, we're focused on ensuring that everyone has the skills to access the digital world for everyday life. That includes efforts to help children, job seekers, small businesses, and the elderly, and we remain firmly committed to our leadership in this area. Today, two members of your board, Sir Ian Cheshire and Iain Conn, are due to step down.
Both have made a hugely valuable contribution. I would like to thank them and wish them the very best for their future plans. Last year, as you know, we conducted a thorough year of the board's composition. As a result, we decided to enhance the board's technology and digital capabilities. That led to us appointing Steven Guggenheimer and Maggie Chan Jones during the course of the year. On April 6 this year, Ruth Cairnie also joined the board. She will succeed Iain Conn today as our Senior Non-Independent, Senior Non-Executive Director, and Ian Cheshire as our Chair of the Remco. These changes take our female board membership to 45%, in line with our diversity and inclusion policy.
Having refreshed the composition of the board, we now feel we have the right diversity, and most importantly, the right skills to steer our strategic agenda. As most of you will be aware, Philip has informed the board that at some point over the next 12 months, he will be stepping down as our chief executive. I can genuinely say that I think Philip has done an excellent job in his time at BT, and the board is fully supportive of our long-term strategy, which he and the team are pursuing. Whilst we're still in the early years of that transformation, we are on track to deliver. The succession process to replace Philip is something that the board was well prepared for.
It's part of our job, and all appropriate candidates are being considered, and we expect to be able to update the market on progress over the course of the summer. In the meantime, of course, it's business as usual, and we are focused on executing our plans and delivering for all our stakeholders. Before I close, I'd just like to thank those whose commitment to our cause is making it possible for us to build a new, modern BT Group and to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Firstly, to our own team, whose expertise and dedication continue to strike me daily. Thank you. Secondly, to our various stakeholders, including, of course, you, our investors. It's your conviction and commitment that allow us to bring our strategy to life, modernizing BT Group for the benefit of all. We don't take it for granted, thank you.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for making the time to join us today. The last financial year threw at us pretty much every challenge in the book, but I'm hugely proud of the resilience the BT Group showed. That was born of two qualities that underpin every strong and successful business. The first is something Adam has already covered: strategic consistency. It's the basis of our approach. We've got the right strategy, and we have a clear plan, and we're staying true to it....The second is customer focus. Our resilience this year has been rooted in an unshakable determination to deliver consistently for our customers, whatever the challenges. We have. Openreach has now built full fibre broadband to over 11 million homes and businesses.
A balanced build spanning both rural and urban areas, and importantly, around a third of all premises passed have already made the switch to full fibre. We said we'd build and connect like fury, and that's precisely what we're doing. The government's full expensing regime, announced in this year's spring budget, will allow Openreach to offset inflation and stick to its target of reaching 25 million premises by 2026, as well as speeding up the rate of connections. Looking to mobile, we're also leading the pack here. EE, its 5G network now covers over two-thirds of the U.K. population, with 8.6 million connections. Of course, building the U.K.'s next-generation digital networks does require massive investment, but this investment will generate sustained returns for years to come.
We are already seeing the first fruits of this transition from legacy to technology that's fit for the future, with both revenue and EBITDA up for the first time in six years, despite the many challenges of the last 12 months. As I said, customers are front and center to everything we do. Delivering for them is not only about building the new, it's also about migrating off the old. The year ahead is critical as we carefully move customers off out-of-date analog systems onto newer technology through, for example, our Digital Voice and 3G sunsetting programs. Transitions of this type will inevitably be disruptive for a minority of customers. Think of the switch to digital radio and TV a few years ago. They are essential if we're to deliver the benefits of digital technology, such as improved scam blocking and future-proofed, resilient service.
Frankly, staying with the nearly obsolete energy-hungry networks is simply not an option. To give you just one example, the number of faults on the old analog phone network doubled in the past year. At the same time as transforming the UK's infrastructure, we're also completely overhauling the BT Group. This isn't just housekeeping, it's a total transformation of the company to ensure our next-generation networks and products are supported by next-generation customer service. It involves structural streamlining, such as the creation of our integrated business-to-business unit and TNT Sports, the new 50/50 joint venture with Warner Bros. Discovery. It involves a relentless efficiency drive, we're already over two-thirds of the way to our target of GBP 3 billion of gross annualized cost savings by the end of financial year 2025. Of course, it will also involve a huge reshaping of our workforce.
We announced in May that the BT Group of the future will be significantly smaller, with up to 40% fewer roles by the end of this decade. As we explained, around half of this reduction will stem from the completion of network build and the reduced maintenance on the new infrastructure. We will only build the FTTP network once, and its performance delivers a massively reduced service and repair burden. It is a much less people-intensive endeavor. Unsurprisingly, however, it was the mention of artificial intelligence that grabbed the headlines. For the record, what we said was that we expect around 10,000 roles to be removed as we automate and digitize processes and services, and some, but not all of that, involving AI.
The level of media interest, of course, is not only about the impact of AI on our people, it also reflects the significance of this dawning era of technological change. We are building a new BT Group to seize the opportunities it brings. We'll do so in conjunction with our union partners, reshaping and reskilling the company so that it can thrive and create the jobs of the future. The focus on new technologies highlights the importance of creating products and services using our responsible technology principles, ensuring that we connect for good and stand out as the most trusted provider in our various markets. Doing so also demands that we build a more inclusive company, one that nurtures and truly embraces diversity.
Our ESG manifesto includes bold targets for the diversity of our workforce. In the past financial year, we made solid progress on our ethnic minority representation. There is, however, more to do, and this will be a major focus for the coming months. Much the same is true of sustainability. Those of you who are longstanding investors will know that BT Group has an enviable record of leadership when it comes to environmental impacts, and that continues. Our operational emissions intensity is down 56% in the past six years. In the same period, we've cut supply chain emissions by 20%. We increased the number of electric vehicles in our fleet to almost 2,500, and we collected nearly 2 million devices from customers for reuse and recycling.
While these developments are all welcome, you don't need me to tell you that there is much, much more to do. Sustainability is at the heart of our strategy for business, not just for our corporate operations. That's where it will remain. We're doing the right thing for our customers, building the new, moving off the old, transforming to offer better products and better services, and always with a focus on our wider societal responsibilities. The year just ended saw two particular challenges to our customer satisfaction. I want to briefly just address those. The first is pricing, which understandably has attracted a lot of attention. As Adam mentioned, Ofcom has played a key role in creating a framework that ensures vibrant competition, while also incentivizing investment.
I think nobody could accuse BT of under-investing, of course, I understand that the price rises which make that possible are never gonna be popular. Ultimately, our customers should and will judge us on the value, and I believe I offer terrific value. Fantastic value for money, with services from as little as GBP 1 per day for fixed broadband and GBP 0.50 per day for mobile. U.K. data usage on fixed and mobile networks has increased threefold in the last 5 years, average prices per meg or per gig in relative and real terms have decreased. Customers are definitely getting more for less, and prices here in the U.K. are among the lowest in Europe. The second challenge to customer service in the year was the industrial action that ran across much of 2022.
It hit our levels of customer satisfaction, and just as much of a concern to me, it hit the morale and well-being of our people. I am very glad that we were able to resolve the dispute and to make market-leading pay awards equivalent to 15% for our lowest paid colleagues. While the wounds of an industrial dispute don't heal immediately, part of the agreement we struck with our union partners was that we work together on a shared vision for the modernization of BT Group. That is an important element in building a stronger BT for the future, and that is a priority for the months ahead. As you know, I've informed the board that at some point over the coming year, I intend to stand down.
We've made so much progress over the last four and a half years, and I'm proud of what we've achieved to date. To summarize, we are making massive investments that will benefit the UK economy and society as a whole. We have the right strategy, and even as we negotiate the type of challenge we've seen over the past year, we've shown a real determination to deliver. We are building a new BT Group, a stronger, better company that's more competitive and has brighter prospects. A higher margin, higher tech business built on the UK's best fixed and mobile networks, fully digitized and with outstanding products and services for our customers. Lots done, but a lot more to do, and I'm fully committed to driving the business forward until I hand over to my successor.
As we change, we will be guided by these three things, the three things that drive our determination to deliver for our customers, a steadfast strategy to build a prosperous business for our investors, and ultimately, our purpose will drive us. We connect for good. Thank you for helping us build that brighter future.