Sizewell C & Money
Posted: 1st January 2025
Petition to David Goldstone, Independent Chair of the Treasury’s new ‘Office of Value for Money’. We, the undersigned, urge you, as the new Office of Value for Money’s independent Chair, to call in the Sizewell C project for urgent scrutiny, as it is currently proceeding by stealth. Over £5 billion of public money has already been allocated to the project, and there is the potential for billions more to be spent without any guarantee of a Final Investment Decision being made: Sizewell C received £2.5 billion from the previous government. In the Autumn Budget 2024, a further £2.7 billion was allocated prior to a Final Investment Decision (half the value of a £5.5 billion subsidy scheme created in August 2024). Therefore £5.2 billion of public money has already been allocated to progress work on site – and up to £8 bn is at risk – without any guarantees that private investors will take a stake in the project, or indeed that a Final Investment Decision will be made. There is no transparency at all about the overall cost of the project. In addition to the drain on taxpayers’ funds, there are serious implications for consumers; the intended use of the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model means households will pay a Sizewell tax on their electricity bills throughout construction, for many years before any electricity is generated. There is still uncertainty regarding major issues that affect Sizewell C’s viability and costs. For example Sizewell C still hasn’t secured a guaranteed sustainable potable water supply for its planned 60 years of operation, nor is there a final design of the sea defences needed to keep the site safe for its full 150 year lifetime. * The Labour government announced soon after the election that an ‘Office of Value for Money’ would be created within His Majesty’s Treasury, to scrutinise areas of public spending. Initial feedback from the Treasury indicated that Sizewell C would definitely be examined, but more recent correspondence with officials has rowed back from such a firm position. David Goldstone was announced as the independent Chair of the Office of Value for Money by Chancellor Rachel Reeves during her Budget on 30 October 2024.
Stop Sizewell C 30th Dec 2024
Government urged to review Sizewell C nuclear plant over ballooning cost. Ecotricity founder Dale Vince, a Labour donor, has called for an urgent cost review of the Sizewell C nuclear power station and Net Zero Teesside carbon capture project. He has written to David Goldstone, the chair of the Treasury’s new Office for Value for Money (OVfM), asking him to examine plans to develop a new nuclear power project in Suffolk that he warned “will saddle consumers with higher bills long before it delivers a single unit of electricity”. “Due to a novel funding method (RAB) a lengthy construction timeline for Sizewell will saddle consumers with higher bills long before it delivers a single unit of electricity at a time when there is clear evidence that we can secure a cleaner, cheaper energy future without nuclear,” said the renewable energy entrepreneur, who has donated money to the Labour Party. The UK government is expected to shoulder about 40% of the project costs for Sizewell C, alongside French state-owned energy company EDF, while asking private investors to commit the remaining capital. Centrica’s chief executive officer Chris O’Shea said this month that the British energy company was prepared to “walk away” from funding Sizewell C if certain conditions could not be met. Other private investors that have reportedly entered talks with the government over funding the project include Schroders Greencoat, Equitix and Amber Infrastructure Group and Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation. Sizewell C has already cost UK taxpayers £3.7 billion, even before a final investment decision has been made, and another £2.7bn of spending is allocated towards the project for 2025-26, Vince warned. “If Hinkley Point C is anything to go by, Sizewell C really should have rigorous financial scrutiny,” he said. The Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is running more than a decade behind schedule. It is now scheduled to be complete in 2031, after EDF’s former chief executive Vincent de Rivaz had originally said it would come online by Christmas 2017.
Energy Voice 30th Dec 2024