Rachel Reeves to sign off funding for Sizewell C nuclear power plant - 43 years after it was proposed
will tomorrow sign off funding for the Sizewell C nuclear power plant – more than 40 years after it was proposed.
The Chancellor will announce £14.2billion to pay for a new reactor at the site in Suffolk, with the plant eventually powering 6million homes.
The funding will be included in her comprehensive spending review, which was finalised last night after a bitter row with Yvette Cooper over police funding ended with the Home Secretary having to accept the Treasury's terms.
Sizewell C was first proposed in 1982 and, after years of paralysis, was given the green light by the Tories in 2022.
Ms Reeves will also confirm a £2.5billion investment in nuclear fusion research, while government sources said ministers would press ahead with proposals for 'mini' nuclear plants around the country. The Treasury said the funding would help create 10,000 new jobs.
The last time Britain completed a new nuclear plant was in 1987, which was Sizewell B. Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, is under construction but not expected to open until 2031.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said last night: 'We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy.'
But Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C group, said the plant was a 'white elephant'.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said: 'The review is settled. We will be focused on investing in Britain's renewal so that all working people are better off.'
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