Hitachi's £700m Horizon nuclear deal to create up to 12,000 British jobs Horizon has 90 staff based in Gloucester and is developing plans for a series of new nuclear power stations at Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey and at Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire. Hitachi plans to build at least two of its Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) at each location. Hitachi said it planned to spend approximately 60pc of the build cost in the UK and has signed memoranda of understanding with Rolls Royce and Babcock International for work on the projects. The transaction is expected to be completed next month. Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the deal as a "decades-long, multi-billion pound vote of confidence in the UK, that will contribute vital new infrastructure to power our economy. It will support up to 12,000 jobs during construction and thousands more permanent highly skilled roles once the new power plants are operational, as well as stimulating exciting new industrial investments in the UK's nuclear supply chain. The price offered by the Japanese group, which beat a rival bid by Westinghouse Electric, was more than double what most analysts had expected. Hiroaki Nakanishi, president of Hitachi, said this deal marked the group's "100-year commitment to the UK and its vision to achieve a long-term, secure, low-carbon and affordable energy supply." The UK, one of only three western European nations with plans to build atomic reactors, has budgeted £110bn to replace aging power plants, upgrade grids and cut pollution. The UK industry has set out plans to build 16 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2025 and the government has designated eight sites for plants. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today show, Energy Secretary Ed Davey said no discussions had been had with Hitachi as to how much they would sell the electricity for or what the cost would be to the consumer. "No, we have not spoken about how much they can sell the electricity that they generate," he said. We've explained our electricity market reform, they can see that what we're doing with renewables, they can see our policies on carbon capture storage, they know our policy that lights stay on and that we have clean energy. Mr Davey said Hitachi's bid for Horizon was a "vote of confidence" in the UK's energy regime and the group was aware that it would not receive public subsidy, in line with the coalition's energy policy. Once up and running the two nuclear plants will produce enough energy to power 14m homes and it is expected to create between 5,000 and 6,000 jobs at each site during construction of the plants and a further 1,000 permanent jobs per site upon start of the operation of each site. Mr Davey added that 60pc of resources for building the plants was being sourced from UK firms, which he said showed that "international investors looking at our energy policy have a lot of faith in it." The deal will also help Hitachi with its plan to more than double nuclear sales to 360bn yen by the end of March 2021. Hitachi had been seen as an unlikely buyer because its ABWR has yet to begin the approval process for use in the UK. This could take up to four years - raising fears of further delays to delivery, but the group said in its statement that it would "immediately work towards" achieving the appropriate licences. However, the design has also already been approved elsewhere, such as the US and Hitachi has a track record of building ABWRs on budget in Japan in less than four years, which is quicker than its rivals.