Malcolm Pyne, butcher and entrepreneur, cracked open a bottle of bubbly at his store and takeaway in Bridgwater to celebrate the announcement.
“This is fabulous news for the town and for Somerset. It really puts us on the map. I feel a bit tingly to be honest. We’ve been here before, thinking it’s going to happen but it really looks like this is it now. The lady [Theresa May] has spoken.”
Pyne and his wife, Julie, took a risk when proposals for a new power station at Hinkley Point emerged nearly a decade ago, and expanded from a high street shop into their current out-of-town store close to the M5, judging that north Somerset was set for a boom.
They already supply local beef, pork and lamb to the existing site and are building a new meat-producing plant to cope with the extra demand Hinkley Point C will create. “We’ll also be increasing our staff from 40 to 60,” said Pyne. “Hinkley provides fantastic business opportunities.”
The government’s announcement was largely welcomed on Thursday by Somerset council leaders, business bosses, schools and colleges.
EDF says that over the 10 years of construction, 25,000 new “employment opportunities” will be created and at the peak there will be 5,600 people working at the site. It estimates that at any one time 900 people will be employed at Hinkley Point C during its 60 years of operation. It has been at pains to claim that wherever possible it will use local people and companies to build and operate the plant.
Duncan McGinty, the Conservative leader of Sedgemoor district council, said many of the new jobs would be well-paid and rewarding. “Hinkley Point C will be the UK’s largest engineering and construction project in modern times. This is a great opportunity,” he said.
He accepted there would be some disruption as new infrastructure – roads, park and ride sites, accommodation blocks for workers – are built. He said action was being taken to make sure Hinkley did not leave other firms with a shortage of skilled workers, and plans to build new homes to try to prevent Bridgwater people from being displaced by new arrivals were on the drawing board.
But he was convinced that the face of the town, long dismissed by many as second best to neighbouring Taunton, would improve. “There will be better shops, restaurants, hotels,” he said.
Colliers International, a commercial property specialist, said the project was important not only to north Somerset but to the whole region, and could help create a new “south-west powerhouse”.
Tim Davies, head of the Bristol office, said: “Irrespective of whether you agree with nuclear power, the commercial benefits that the development will bring to the region cannot be underestimated.
“What is needed now is for work at Hinkley Point C to get under way as soon as possible, as this will unlock extensive opportunities along the massive supply chain required, and will benefit sectors including construction, industrial, offices and hospitality.”
The construction union Ucatt welcomed the government’s decision. Brian Rye, its acting general secretary, said: “The go-ahead was vital for construction, which desperately needed the confirmation of such a major project following a slowdown in the industry caused by the Brexit vote. It is also good news for the overall economy as it helps to guarantee the stability of our future energy supply.
“The construction of Hinkley Point C will create 25,000 job opportunities over the lifetime of the project and during that time 1,000 construction apprentices will be created.”
Of course, not everyone was wholly positive. Chris Morgan, a west Somerset councillor who lives in Stogursey, one of the villages closest to Hinkley Point, expressed not jubilation but relief. “It’s gone on so long we almost got to the point where we didn’t think it was going to happen,” he said. “People are very anxious around here. Some have moved away because of the plans; others are going to have years of upheaval while the construction takes place.”
Bridget Woodman, deputy director of the energy policy group at the University of Exeter, claimed the decision was a huge missed opportunity.
She said: “The prime minister had a moment of common sense earlier in the summer when she realised that the viability of the project needed careful scrutiny, but in the end she has caved in to French and Chinese pressure to go ahead despite all the evidence stacking up that subsidising the station will cost electricity consumers billions of pounds over its lifetime, not to mention all the taxpayer underwriting for clearing up its radioactive waste when it stops operating.
“This is a case of short-term politics winning out over the longer-term economic and environmental benefit of the nation. By going down the nuclear route, the prime minister has missed the opportunity to have a meaningful debate about the future development of the UK’s electricity system and the role that renewables and demand management can play in delivering cheaper, less environmentally damaging and more secure power than Hinkley Point.”
Matilda King, 72, a retired civil servant, worried about possible disaster. “Look around here. All this – and all of us – could be gone if it does go bang.” she said.
Allan Jeffrey, a former science teacher and a spokesperson for the campaign group Stop Hinkley, lives a few hundred metres from EDF’s visitor hub in the Angel Place shopping centre in Bridgwater. The front windows of his terraced house are adorned with anti-nuclear posters, the shelves inside heaving with files documenting Britain’s nuclear history.
He summed up his reaction simply as “disappointed”, but remained convinced that the project would not go ahead in the end. “We’re told that nuclear power is safe but we’ve seen the devastating effects of accidents in Chernobyl and Japan,” he said. “This is old-fashioned technology when we should be investing in renewables.”
