Reeves says nuclear investment shows UK ‘back where it belongs'
The Chancellor has signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk, while Rolls-Royce has been named as the preferred bidder to build small modular reactors (SMRs) in a programme backed by £2.5 billion of taxpayers' cash.
Ms Reeves will use Wednesday's spending review to allocate tens of billions of funding for major infrastructure projects over the rest of the decade.
Officials hope SMRs will be cheaper and quicker to build than traditional power plants, and projects could be connected to the grid by the mid-2030s.
Ms Reeves said: 'The UK is back where it belongs, taking the lead in the technologies of tomorrow with Rolls-Royce SMR as the preferred partner for this journey.'
The SMR project could support up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and power the equivalent of around three million homes, with a first site expected to be allocated later this year by state-owned Great British Energy – Nuclear.
Tuesday's announcement of Rolls-Royce as the preferred bidder came after the Government confirmed financial support for Sizewell C.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear power capacity was needed to deliver a 'golden age of clean energy abundance'.
Trade unions welcomed the Sizewell move, which the Treasury said would go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships.
But the head of a campaign group opposing the plant criticised the decision to commit the funding, saying it is still not clear what the total cost will be.
Nuclear plants are seen as increasingly important electricity sources as the Government tries to decarbonise Britain's grid by 2030, replacing fossil fuels with green power.
The last time Britain completed one was in 1987, which was the Sizewell B plant.
Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, is under construction and is expected to produce enough power for about six million homes when it opens, but that may not be until 2031.
The Energy Secretary said: 'We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance, because that is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis.
'This is the Government's clean energy mission in action – investing in lower bills and good jobs for energy security.'
It will get the UK off the 'fossil fuel rollercoaster', he separately told The Guardian.
'We know that we're going to have to see electricity demand at least double by 2050. All the expert advice says nuclear has a really important role to play in the energy system.
'In any sensible reckoning, this is essential to get to our clean power and net zero ambitions.'
The joint managing directors of Sizewell C, Julia Pyke and Nigel Cann, said: 'Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Sizewell C, the UK's first British-owned nuclear power plant in over 30 years.'
At the peak of construction, Sizewell C is expected to provide 10,000 jobs and the company behind the project has already signed £330 million worth of contracts with local businesses.
The plant, which will power the equivalent of six million homes, is planned to be operational in the 2030s.
The GMB union said giving Sizewell C the go-ahead was 'momentous'.
Regional Secretary Warren Kenny said: 'Nuclear power is essential for clean, affordable, and reliable energy – without new nuclear, there can be no net zero.
'Sizewell C will provide thousands of good, skilled, unionised jobs and we look forward to working closely with the Government and Sizewell C to help secure a greener future for this country's energy sector.'
Alison Downes, of Stop Sizewell C, said ministers had not 'come clean' about the full cost of the project, which the group have previously estimated could be some £40 billion.
She said: 'Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C?'
The Government has also promised £2.5 billion over five years for fusion energy research and £6 billion of investment for the industrial base supporting the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet.
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Ed Miliband was in his element, spending our money. Energy Secretary Miliband had come to the Commons to announce a £14.2billion binge on nuclear energy. How skittish and giddy he was. The Red Rum teeth were brandished. All his goofiest limb-waving gesticulations were seen. He was full of beans, his pleasure possibly accentuated by the fact that the Cabinet minister rumoured to have come a cropper in the spending review is Yvette Cooper, wife of his former shadow chancellor Ed Balls. Miliband and Balls once competed for Gordon Brown's favours. Later they had a fruitless spell running the opposition. That partnership ended badly. Now Mr Miliband is back in footlights. 'I don't want to steal the Chancellor of the Exchequer's thunder,' he insisted. Don't believe it. He was relishing this opportunity to announce so much spending. It is a measure of Rachel Reeves 's decline that Mr Miliband, not she, was entrusted with this splurge. He kept nibbling his right thumb, a gerbil with its carrot. Now he grabbed his right foot, clutched his right cheek, hugged himself, flicked through his file, shrugged, muttered to himself, stroked his eyelashes, ran a finger through his fringe, patted the back of his head, excavated wax from one ear, pulled weird faces, drilled his cross-eyed stare at the carpet, clenched one fist and said 'incredibly' a lot. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury: Would you entrust this man with £14.2billion? Would you hire him even to drive a milk float? Shadow minister Nick Timothy said the Conservatives had long been pro-nuclear. 'It's kinda hard on a day like this to be a member of the Opposition,' laughed Mr Miliband before he asserted his core philosophy: public spending. 'I'm the guy that identified Sizewell and I'm the guy that's delivering Sizewell,' he crowed. 'They didn't put the money up!' In Mili-land, 'putting the money up' is an entirely asexual, amoebic activity. How that money is created (ie taxes or borrowing) is never mentioned. The Lib Dems' spokesman, Pippa Heylings, blew up on take-off. She tried complaining that the Tories were responsible for 14 years of 'dither and delay' on nuclear. It was not lost on the House that David Cameron's Coalition government froze nuclear projects on the insistence of... the loony Lib Dems! Newcomer Heylings was whacked by heckles and laughter. This offended her tender sensibilities. 'Can I continue? Can I continue?' she squawked. Speaker Hoyle told her to stop being feeble. It was, incidentally, the Speaker's birthday. He was wished happy returns by not just one or two MPs but by 49 of them. Repetitive sycophancy syndrome. Mr Miliband, in response to hapless Heylings, gave us a glimpse of his boyhood. He noted that Ms Heylings had 'slightly airbrushed out the role of the current leader of the Lib Dems' (Sir Ed Davey was, you may recall, an energy secretary in the Coalition years). 'We'll sort of Trotsky that out, to use a family term,' honked Mr Miliband. In the Miliband home of the 1970s, Trotsky's merciless treatment of his enemies was plainly an everyday topic. Numerous Labour MPs had fled the chamber at the start of the statement but those who stayed were enthusiastic about the spending, none more so than Derby South's Baggy Shanker. He whooped about Rolls-Royce winning a big commission to help build the new nuclear plant. 'Great news for the country, great news for Derby,' cried Mr Shanker. And pretty decent news for the Shanker finances, too. His register of interests shows that Mr Baggy Trousers owns more than £70,000 worth of Rolls-Royce shares, his wife and son having more. How commendably Thatcherite. Until recently the Left would have fretted about radioactive waste from nuclear energy. In the Blair years that was the establishment's position. Now it was only Jeremy Corbyn (Ind, Islington N) who mentioned it. Political fashion has changed. The Left has been mugged by reality. But we are all paying the cost, in billions, for its past posturing.
