inspire BUSINESS WEST – CONNECTING BUSINESSES COMMENT & OPINION
Keeping you up-to-date with the latest political policies and decisions that affect South West businesses
Hinkley Point C: seeing is believing
A closer look inside Hinkley Point C
On, off, on, off the roller coaster of Hinkley Point C continues. PHIL SMITH, MD of Business West, describes the impact of his recent visit to the controversial site.
Thirty tonnes with one scoop! That's what each of the three massive yellow diggers can shift with one manouevre as they prowl somewhat ominously around the 400 acre site at Hinkley Point C. What adds to a bizarre industrial scene is the fleet of 100 tonne lorries that constantly feed off these monsters, like a stream of worker bees around their queen. The site on the northern coastline of
Somerset is being prepared for the construction of two new pressurised water nuclear reactors which, when operational, will generate 7% of the UK total electricity supply. Given the age of many of the UK's coal fired power stations this new source of low carbon energy is vital for the UK's security of the supply of electricity over the next 30 years. Even an engineer like me was taken
aback by the planning and resources needed for the building of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. The scale of what is Europe's largest construction project is simply eye watering - for example requiring more structural steel than nine aircraft carriers and five London Eyes put together. The £18billion expenditure, the much
quoted strike price of £92 per Megawatt/hour and 25,000 jobs to be created are long trailed metrics for how big this project is. But seeing is believing and it's the sheer physicality of the Hinkley construction site that has brought it to life for me.
12 insight SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
Put the South West on the map
By PHIL SMITH, managing director, Business West Chambers of Commerce Though it gets on with its business quietly, I
F
or too long, I believe the regions of the UK have been somewhat forgotten as London became too dominant, both
politically and economically. Thankfully, and not before time, the political autonomy pendulum is swinging towards devolution - increasing power for regional communities like here in the South West and away from London and Whitehall. The engine of the UK has seemed to me to be running on a singl cylinder with a disproportionate amount of the power, influence and economic growth coming from London and the South East. We hope this shift in political control to the
regions of the UK will be followed by a strengthening of the economies of the great regional cities such as Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham to the benefit of UK plc. This is why the Chancellor of the Exchequer
has been extolling the virtues of the so-called “Northern Powerhouse”. The North of England, of course, has important sectors of manufacturing and large centres of population. Here in the South West, I am pleased to say
we are too seeing local government following the devolution path and looking to appoint elected Metro Mayors. At the same time, as part of those mayoral packages, councils are receiving major financial assistance from central government.
would say that the South West of England is already a powerhouse, in its own right. As a case in point, the South West is home to 25% of the UK’s aerospace industry and can claim world class producers of engines, wings, undercarriages and helicopters in Rolls Royce, Airbus and Agusta Westland amongst others. The South West benefits from marvellous creativity. The region increasingly attracts talented people due both to its work opportunities and its high quality of life. Travel is also a factor with Bristol, for instance, soon to be just over an hour from central London via a new electric train service. Bristol too boasts a vibrant regional airport and, sitting at the confluence of the M4 and M5 motorways, it is within an hour of Heathrow. I think that Brexit gives the South West region
a great opportunity to take advantage of a new global trade order. We are eagerly awaiting the UK government’s
go ahead on Hinkley Point C in Somerset. For all these reasons, I think that the South
West is well positioned to build on its powerhouse capabilities. We need the ambition and confidence to trade throughout the world (and to shout about it) and the control afforded by local devolution to drive change for the better in our economy and communities.
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