BRITISH Energy last night announced it had been given permission to extend the deadline for a life-saving financial restructuring.

The troubled nuclear power group, which operates Hartlepool Power Station, secured more room to manoeuvre after creditors agreed to postpone the final day for the completion of a proposed debt-for-equity swap to March 31.

The agreement, which compared with a previous deadline of January 31, emerged a week after British Energy said it might have to review timings because of delays restarting plants at Hartlepool and Heysham, Lancashire.

The restructuring also requires the approval of Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, who has extended the Government's deadline to April 30.

Under the restructuring plan, drawn up in October last year after low wholesale prices sent the group into the red, banks and bondholders agreed to write off £1.3bn in debt in return for control of the group. Shareholders will be left with only 2.5 per cent of the company.

The plants at Heysham and Hartlepool, which have been closed while modifications were made, are likely to be back in operation by the middle of the month. It also has sites at Hinkley Point, Somerset; Hunterston, Ayrshire; Dungeness, Kent; Sizewell, Suffolk and Torness, East Lothian.