£8bn new look for power station

Towering ambition: the only pig spotted flying over the Battersea Power Station was this giant inflatable one re-creating Pink Floyd's cover of their 1977’s album Animals (AP)

Plans for an £8bn redevelopment of Battersea power station were unveiled last night as a precursor for a series of trade deals that the Government hopes will be clinched during the Olympics.

The Malaysian owner of the iconic building said it would create 20,000 construction jobs and 13,000 full-time posts when it converts the Thames-side building into a complex of shops, offices and homes and a hotel. The listed structure, which is actually two power plants built between 1929 and 1955, has been semi-derelict since it stopped generating in 1983. Work on the redevelopment, which will also encompass an extension of the Tube's Northern Line and the construction of two stations, is set to begin next summer.