County-based power company reveals hundreds of jobs will go
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HUNDREDS of jobs are to go at a Gloucester-based company after its projects for nuclear power stations in Wales and South Gloucestershire were suspended by its Japanese parent firm.
Last week it was reported that the jobs were at risk because of wrangling over funding for the plans.
But now Horizon Nuclear Power has confirmed that nearly all its 380 staff will lose their jobs.
Horizon Nuclear Power’s team were working on well-advanced plans for a new reactor at Wylfa on Anglesey while also drawing up proposals for another power station at Oldbury-on-severn.
But after discussions between company owner Hitachi and the Government over financing and commercial arrangements fell through, both projects were suspended and a large-scale redundancy programme launched.
Last week, Horizon confirmed consultations with its 380 staff had started, adding that it expected “only a small number of people” to remain at the firm, which has its headquarters in Brockworth, Gloucester.
It is believed around
300 of the workers are based at the HQ, with 50 at the Anglesey site and another 30 at Oldbury.
As well as employees, the decision will have an impact on dozens of contractors.
A spokesman for Horizon said: “Hitachi haven’t withdrawn entirely but we have suspended our projects at Wylfa and Oldbury and very unfortunately this triggers a large-scale redundancy programme.
“We begin a formal consultation process with our 380 staff and the current expectation is there will only be a small number of people left at Horizon at the end of the process.
“As with our staff, we are now in conversations with our supply chain with a view to bringing their work to an orderly end.”
Last week, Tewkesbury MP Laurence Robertson met with employees in Gloucester after pledging to do “anything he can” to assist.
He said: “The employees are the main concern to me.
“I want to see they are being treated as well as they can be, and the company is helping them look for new work.”
Asked if he thought the projects could be resumed, he said: “I would hope so. Every country wants to cut down on its own emissions. The downside, of course, is it is expensive to build power stations.
“I think they probably need to get more partners involved.”
Those staff who remain will maintain the sites in Wylfa and Oldbury, work on community projects around the sites and attempt to acquire funding from the Government for future work.
Horizon has progressed with its plan for a power station at Wylfa after acquiring the site in 2012, and it was approved by the Government’s Office for Nuclear Regulation two years ago.
If successful, the company then hoped to build a second nuclear power station at Oldbury.
Up to 850 people would have been employed at the two sites, with con- struction workforces up to 9,000.
But both Hitachi and the Government could not come to an agreement about how the stations would be financed.
The Wylfa station would have cost £13 billion.
Despite the suspension, Matt Burley, chairman of Nuclear South West - a partnership of industry and the academic and public sectors - said he was confident a solution could be found for new nuclear development at the Wylfa and Oldbury sites.
He said: “In the South West, the nuclear industry remains buoyant, with strong progress in Hinkley Point C, Magnox and the defence nuclear estate.”