EDF intends to have completed four nuclear power stations in the UK by 2025, it told MPs this week

Paul Spence, director of strategy and regulation at the firm, told MPs on the Energy and Climate Change select committee that he “expected all four to come on stream by 2025”.

EDF had not given a timeframe for the four nuclear reactors it intends to build, starting with Hinkley Point in Somerset later this year. Spence said each would take five years to build, but that EDF would not wait until one was finished before beginning the next.

His comments came as contractors lined up to tender for the £100m job for preliminary works at Hinkley Point. Joint ventures between Balfour Beatty and Vinci, and Kier and Bam Nuttall are known to be bidding.

A decision is expected in March.