Better monitoring for better impact management: the local socio-economic impacts of constructing Sizewell B nuclear power station

Abstract

Drawing on a comprehensive longitudinal research monitoring study of the construction of Sizewell B nuclear power station in the UK, the article highlights local socio-economic impacts and approaches to their better management. It explores local employment and expenditure impacts and ways to maximise local benefits. Approaches to the internalisation of some impacts, for example, on the housing market and on health services, to live within the capacity of local services, are also examined. Monitoring and controlling the impacts of a major project on the neglected area of crime provides another facet to the research. The paper concludes with an exploration of several barometers of local opinion of impacts, providing social constructions of the reality of the power station development. It provides examples of how the management of a major construction project in its local community can be clearly improved through a long running monitoring programme.

Keywords:

• longitudinal monitoring
• socio-economic impacts
• nuclear power station construction
• managing benefits
• impact internalization
• capacity constraints