£1.3bn Hinkley contracts ‘just the tip of the iceberg’ for South West
South West firms had won more than £1.3 billion of Hinkley Point C contracts by July 2018, with a longer supply-chain opportunity still opening.
In July 2018, figures published around the Hinkley Point C Wider Benefits Realisation work showed that South West companies had won more than £1.3 billion of contracts. About £650 million had already been spent with regional businesses, with hundreds of millions more committed.
EDF described a project expected to support a very large construction workforce and about 900 operational jobs across a 60-year life. Contracts already placed in the region covered work as different as steel fabrication, marine logistics, haulage, fencing, catering systems and site services. Several Somerset and South West firms had joined consortia so they could bid at the scale tier-one contractors required.
Somerset 3D's headline called those awards the tip of the iceberg because mechanical, electrical and manufacturing packages were still coming forward after the early civil engineering. That reading matched what supply-chain advisers were saying at the time: the first wave was services and civils, and the industrial legacy would depend on local firms winning the later work.
Contract values have moved on since 2018. Treat the £1.3 billion figure as a milestone, not a current total. If you want the live route into the supply chain, start with an enquiry rather than an old portal address.