UK ministers could give the go-ahead to the new Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk within weeks, according to reports.
Keir Starmer is expected to give the final nod to begin construction of Britain’s second new nuclear power project in a generation, alongside the French nuclear developer EDF, at a Franco-British summit next month.
The final approval for Sizewell C, first reported by the Financial Times, would mark the end of a 15-year journey to secure investment for the plant since the site was first earmarked for new nuclear development in 2010.
The government is understood to be in the final stages of securing billions of pounds of investment from the private sector to back the project, which follows the Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, which is under construction in Somerset.
Ministers are expected to use the government’s spending review, scheduled for 11 June, to set out the UK’s investment in the project, which will ultimately rely on a mix of funding from taxpayers and via energy bills.
The final go-ahead from Starmer and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will then follow during the Anglo-French summit due to take place in London on 8-10 July, according to the Financial Times.
The UK government’s stake in the project stood at 84% at the end of last year compared with EDF’s 16% share of the project. The French state’s cash-strapped utilities company is understood to be eager to reduce its stake in the project even further.
Potential investors in the project according to the report include Schroders Greencoat, Equitix, the Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Amber Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, the UK pension fund USS and the insurer Rothesay, backed by the Singaporean infrastructure fund GIC.
EDF had originally planned to build the nuclear plant alongside China’s state nuclear developer China General Nuclear Power Corp, which also holds a stake in the Hinkley Point C project, but its partner was forced to step back from the project by the UK government on security grounds.
The project has secured £6.4bn of government funding to support its development to date, of which £2.5bn was granted by the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak and a further £3.9bn has come from the current Labour administration.
The planned financial framework designed to support the project, which is rumoured to cost about £40bn, has angered anti-nuclear campaigners because it would grant EDF support via energy bills from the start of its construction.
The framework differs from the model used to support the Hinkley Point C project, which will earn revenue for EDF only once the plant begins generating electricity. Under the new model billpayers could be on the hook for construction delays and cost overruns at Sizewell C, according to campaigners.
Alison Downes, a campaigner for Stop Sizewell C, said: “We’ll all pay for the £40bn folly that is Sizewell C. By starting construction and ploughing £6.4bn of taxpayers’ money so far into the project the government has undermined its negotiating position and essentially written private investors a blank cheque. Any that came onboard at the 11th hour will have been bribed by generous terms at the expense of consumers, who will be forced to pay a nuclear tax on household energy bills for many years until a single lightbulb is lit.”
