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.
[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.”