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Objectives and strategy
Risk
Our principal risks relate to the achievement of our objectives and strategy, as we believe that by delivering on these objectives we will achieve our primary objective of delivering growth to drive shareholder value. We set out how we intend to achieve our objectives below and we describe our performance during the year against our objectives in Key performance indicators and Performance during the year .
In considering the opportunities we have to grow and develop our business, we have identified a number of risks and uncertainties in achieving our objectives. The most significant risk factors we have identified relate to:
- changes in laws or regulations;
- breaches in environmental or health and safety law or regulations;
- network failure or inability to carry out critical non-network operations;
- achievement of business performance objectives, including regulatory targets and delivering anticipated cost and efficiency savings;
- business development activity, including acquisitions and disposals;
- regulatory treatment of commodity costs passed through to consumers;
- reputation damage from disruptions to supply, even if outside our control;
- fluctuations in exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices and their impact on borrowings, derivatives and commodity contracts;
- increases in interest rates;
- restrictions in borrowings and changes in credit ratings or in tax rates;
- future funding requirements of our pension schemes; and
- changes in accounting standards.
These are described in more detail within Corporate Governance.