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Nuclear Free Local Authorities welcome energy efficiency plans, but deplore costly Sizewell C nuclear build at the public’s expense

Whilst the Nuclear Free Local Authorities welcome the Chancellor’s
commitment to invest billions more in home energy-efficiency, albeit too
slowly, his backing for Sizewell C is a blow.

In today’s Autumn
Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced a further £6 billion for home
insulation from 2025 and has given the green light to the go ahead at
Sizewell C saying that contracts will be signed with partner French state
owned operator EDF Energy ‘in weeks’.

The NFLA has previously, and
severally, called on Government ministers, from successive Prime Ministers
on down, to provide serious investment for an emergency programme to
retrofit insulation to Britain’s cold and damp homes to improve comfort
whilst lowering bills for customers and the carbon footprint of the
nation’s housing stock.

Most unwelcome is the Chancellor’s backing for
Sizewell C. Jeremy Hunt has described the costly project as ‘Britain’s
first state backed nuclear power station for 30 years’, but much of the
backing will be at the expense of Britain’s already hard-pressed
electricity customers.

Hinkley Point C in Somerset, currently being built,
is already almost a decade late and way over budget, and her sister,
Sizewell C, will most likely cost upwards of £30 billion and be subject to
significant delays with customers expected to pick up the tag through the
imposition of an additional ‘nuclear tax’ on their bills to pay for it.
The NFLA wrote recently to the Chancellor urging him to scrap the scheme
and divert the money saved into renewables.

 NFLA 17th Nov 2022

November 18, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, UK