LET THERE BE LIGHT

摘要

It may have been a long time coming, but the agreement between the UK government and French utility giant EDF over a £16bn power station at Hinkley Point is, for the construction sector, an opportunity that looks well worth the wait. The Anglo-French negotiations that led to this week's agreement on a price for electricity from the plant (see pages 12 and 13) - which have removed the biggest remaining block on construction of a new station - have taken more than a year to reach their conclusion. Maybe we should be grateful that that's just a fraction of the 100-year saga involving the two nations that preceded construction of the Channel Tunnel. But the uncertainty that has surrounded Hinkley since EDF first expressed an interest has rightly been a cause of worry for a construction sector trying to plan for a potential scheme that could offer more work than the Olympics - or nothing at all.