THE SNP have hit out at the UK Government after it was revealed that the UK Government has effectively cut £2.5 billion of GB Energy funding.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer had previously promised to invest £8.3bn into the state-owned clean energy company in a bid to invest in renewable energy projects and decarbonise the entire UK electricity system by 2030.
However, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves's spending review yesterday said the company would now share this funding with a separate body looking to invest into nuclear energy.
The Treasury’s spending plans said that Great British Energy and ‘Great British Energy – Nuclear’, which was quietly renamed from Boris Johnson's Great British Nuclear a day before the spending review, would now split the funds, with £2.5bn going towards a new generation of small modular nuclear reactors.
A Whitehall source told The Guardian: “This has always been part of our plans, but I think perhaps not everyone was paying attention.”
SNP MSP Bill Kidd, meanwhile, said it was “shocking, but not surprising”.
Since its official launch last July, progress has been slow and not without criticism – including frustration over GB Energy not having its own headquarters in Aberdeen and how the chair, Jürgen Maier, will actually be based in Manchester.
In an interview with Sky News in February, Maier also poured cold water over another Labour pledge of creating 1000 jobs for Aberdeen – saying it might take 20 years.
“The fact Labour is raiding its promised funding for GB energy to spend on nuclear is shocking but not surprising,” Kidd said.
“Scotland is already a global leader in renewable energy, and we generate far more electricity than we consume. Our priority must be a just transition that delivers long-term economic opportunities for all - not more nuclear.
The MSP added: "Nuclear power is one of the most expensive forms of energy production. Projects like Hinkley Point C in Somerset are billions over budget and years behind schedule. Meanwhile, Scotland’s net-zero sector has grown by 20% in just the last two years according to the CBI – and that momentum is only building.
"While Labour pours billions into slow, ineffective nuclear projects, the SNP is investing in clean, homegrown industries that are creating real, sustainable jobs in Scotland today."
