Government denies Sizewell C nuclear power plant ‘under review’
It's as the government looks to limit spending
Last updated 4th Nov 2022
Downing Street has said the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear plant is not being reviewed or delayed.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s not accurate to say we are scrapping it.”
This comes after earlier reports that the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk was under review as the Government looks to limit spending.
The new reactor, located some 30 miles north-east of Ipswich, was expected to be built by energy firm EDF.
Boris Johnson promised £700 million of taxpayers’ money to the project in his final policy speech in early September as he sought to make energy security part of his legacy as prime minister.
A Government official had told the BBC: “We are reviewing every major project – including Sizewell C.”
One senior Treasury source backed this, stressing “we’re looking at all capital spending”.
But others, along with sources in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, insisted Sizewell C was not being scrapped or delayed.
A Government spokesman said: “Delivering infrastructure to improve everyday life for millions of people is a priority for this Government.
“HS2 is under way, within budget, and supporting 28,000 jobs, we are also seeking to approve at least one large-scale nuclear project in the next few years and aim to speed up the delivery of around 100 major infrastructure projects across the UK.”
The total cost of the Sizewell C project could be around £20 billion, according to reports.
It is not expected to begin generating electricity until the 2030s; the similar reactor at Hinkley Point C in Somerset began construction in 2016 and will not be online until 2027, although this is partly due to the impact of the pandemic.
Proponents of the site say it can help get the UK to run on zero-carbon power, but others say the cash would be better spent on wind farms or insulation.
The Government is seeking opportunities to reduce spending after the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned last month that the state faces a roughly £60 billion financial black-hole following the mini-budget announcement in September.
The Treasury has since pulled back on a number of previous unfunded tax cuts or spending plans.
The Chancellor last month announced that the two-year energy price freeze for all households will now run for just six months.
Jeremy Hunt said at the time that the universal energy price guarantee will finish in April, with the Government launching a review on how to then support bills after this period.
Stop Sizewell C said: "The Chancellor has said that eye-wateringly difficult decisions are needed so it's right that eye-watering expensive projects go under the microscope.
"Sizewell C can only offer short term pain - with more money on our energy bills - for long term pain, with huge uncertainty about cost and time, 1 to deliver electricity that is far more expensive than renewables.
"There is no way Sizewell C offers the hard stretched public purse value for money. Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt should invest in a major energy efficiency drive that would create many thousands of green jobs, and within a very few years deliver real savings on household bills instead of increasing them through the nuclear stealth tax.