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”.