All posts by Alison Downes

Chancellor rides roughshod over the ability to fight damaging infrastructure

Stop Sizewell C Press Statement 23 September 2022

Kwasi Kwarteng has today laid out plans that will make it more difficult to challenge damaging infrastructure, including Sizewell C. See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1105989/CCS207_CCS0822746402-001_SECURE_HMT_Autumn_Statement_2022_BOOK_Web_Accessible.pdf

[Page 21] New legislation will be brought forward in the coming months to address barriers by reducing “unnecessary burdens” to speed up the delivery of much-needed infrastructure, including
• reducing the burden of environmental assessments •
 reducing bureaucracy in the consultation process
• reforming habitats and species regulations
• increasing flexibility to make changes to a DCO once it has been submitted.

Sizewell C is included on a list of “infrastructure projects which will be accelerated as fast as possible, aiming to get the vast majority starting construction by the end of 2023.” [Annex B]

Stop Sizewell C said “The idea that reducing the burden of environmental assessments, bureaucracy in the consultation process and reforming habitats and species regulations are appropriate for a project such as Sizewell C – wholly within an AONB, next to Minsmere and surrounded by rare habitats – is deeply dismaying. In any case, a significant proportion of the delays to the Sizewell C planning process have been down to EDF stalling and changing its delivery ideas rather than the planning system. The Chancellor wants to ride roughshod over the ability to fight damaging projects.”

Reaction: Liz Truss’s Energy Statement

Stop Sizewell C Press Statement, 8 September

Stop Sizewell C noticed a few points relevant to Sizewell C and nuclear in Liz Truss’s speech on energy.

She said green levies would be temporarily suspended but gave no indication of how long such a suspension would last – potentially the two years that the energy bill price cap would be frozen for. Sizewell C can only be financed by adding a nuclear levy to struggling households, because the markets won’t touch it without being guaranteed money back during construction. (Nuclear is not green, but a Treasury led public consultation on the “taxonomy” of nuclear energy is expected this autumn.) Does this mean Sizewell C could not start during such a freeze?

She said “Great British Nuclear” would be launched later this month, but Sizewell C is not British. It has been developed by two state-owned entities, EDF and CGN, and EDF will have to manage construction. It’s also likely that overseas funders will be necessary. The UK’s nuclear industry is reliant on overseas uranium. Sizewell B is currently fuelled by enriched uranium from Russia and the fuel for its next outage (ordered before the invasion of Ukraine) is from the same source.

Ms Truss announced a Net Zero review and said the Business Secretary is to set out a plan in the next two months on how to make the UK a net energy exporter by 2040. The UK has been regularly exporting energy to France in recent months given that such a high proportion of French nuclear reactors have been offline.

Ms Truss also said that renewable and nuclear generators would move onto Contracts for Difference which would break the price link with gas, but it is unclear what this might mean for Sizewell C, which is expected to be financed via a Regulated Asset Base

Stop Sizewell C says: “By suspending green levies Liz Truss has backed herself into a corner. Slow, damaging, £30 billion Sizewell C can only be financed by adding a nuclear levy to struggling households, because the markets won’t touch it without being guaranteed money back during construction. Her government’s review of Net Zero should conclude that Sizewell C must be cancelled.”

A Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday shows overwhelming support for renewable energy, with 74% backing investment in solar, 69% in offshore wind, 64% wave and 63% onshore wind and tidal, compared to just 38% for nuclear. A further 69% backed energy efficiency.

Calculations by Professor Steve Thomas of the University of Greenwich Business School for Stop Sizewell C, suggest even optimistic assumptions about inflation and the overall cost of Sizewell C will increase the burden on households well above the government’s estimate of “£1 a month”.

What will our new Prime Minister mean for Sizewell C?

Press Statement, 5 September 2022

Stop Sizewell C says: “If Liz Truss wants to cut green levies on energy bills and avoid being accused of complete hypocrisy, she will have real trouble supporting Boris Johnson’s last-ditch attempts to tie her to Sizewell C. This slow, damaging £30bn project can only be financed by adding a nuclear levy to struggling households, because the markets won’t touch it without being guaranteed money back during construction. The irony is that the government intends to try and re-label nuclear as “green” – which it certainly isn’t – making Liz Truss’s promise even more of a contradiction.”

A Treasury led public consultation on the “taxonomy” of nuclear energy is expected this autumn.

Liz Truss’s dilemma was highlighted by a Survation poll for the Mail on Sunday shows overwhelming support for renewable energy, with 74% backing investment in solar, 69% in offshore wind, 64% wave and 63% onshore wind and tidal, compared to just 38% for nuclear. A further 69% backed energy efficiency.

 

Calculations by Professor Steve Thomas of the University of Greenwich Business School for Stop Sizewell C, suggest even optimistic assumptions about inflation and the overall cost of Sizewell C will increase the burden on households well above the government’s estimate of “£1 a month”.