Customers, parish councils, emergency services, volunteers and charities were just some of the attendees at the four events held in Eastleigh, Melksham, Portsmouth and Reading over the last few weeks.

Investments in SSEN's network, improving communications during planned works and building further community support and resilience were all open for discussion to help the distribution operator understand and address any issues or concerns that local communities might have.

Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Alison Dean explains more: "At SSEN, we constantly strive to improve the service we provide and we can only do that by speaking to our customers and stakeholders to find out where they think we might be able to make changes for the better."

"It's vital for us to reach out to the communities that rely on SSEN to keep their lights on and ask them how their customer experience can be improved. By holding these events locally we can chat to our stakeholders in an informal environment, so they feel more comfortable providing us with the feedback we need to make a difference."

Information gathered by SSEN from the meetings has already provided valuable suggestions on additional support for vulnerable customers, new ways of working with health professionals in the community and sharing knowledge in terms of time scales and planned interruptions for works being carried out in the regions towns and villages.