COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

The £18bn Hinkley gamble: nuclear deal will cost every UK family an extra £1,000



Controversial plans for the Hinkley Point nuclear plant were finally approved yesterday – despite national security concerns and claims it could cost every family an extra £1,000.

Theresa May signed off the £18billion project after imposing restrictions to limit the influence of the Chinese state, which is helping bankroll the deal.

The Prime Minister also announced plans for a ‘golden share’ rule to tackle wider security fears over future foreign investment in national infrastructure such as energy and transport.

But ministers faced criticism as it emerged they had failed to reduce massive subsidies for French firm EDF, which is building the Hinkley plant, and its Chinese partners.

Britain has agreed to guarantee EDF a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity, or £89.50 if another scheme at Sizewell, Suffolk, goes ahead. The current market price for a megawatt hour is just £38.91.

Electricity bill-payers will be forced to make up the difference once the plant in Somerset comes on stream in the 2020s.

The National Audit Office has warned these subsidies will add almost £30billion to electricity bills over the project’s lifetime. That is an extra £30 for the average annual bill over 35 years – totalling more than £1,000 per household.

Last night Tory MP Zac Goldsmith said by the end of the project ‘this new power plant will have generated the most expensive energy in the history of energy generation’.

And former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson said every independent energy expert believed the Hinkley project was a ‘thoroughly lousy deal’. He said EDF was ‘hopelessly behind schedule’ on similar plants in France and Finland and called on ministers to pull the plug if it encountered similar problems here.

Paul Dorfman, of the Nuclear Consulting Group, warned the security regulations did not go far enough. He said one of the Chinese firms involved was being pursued in the US for ‘nuclear spying’.

Mrs May had ordered a review in July amid security concerns over Chinese involvement and criticism of the cost. Her joint chief of staff Nick Timothy is said to have played a key role in the decision after voicing concern about China’s role last year.

Writing on the ConservativeHome website before Mrs May became PM, Mr Timothy claimed security experts were worried the Chinese could build weaknesses into computer systems that would allow them to ‘shut down Britain’s energy production at will’.

Britain has agreed to guarantee EDF a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity, or £89.50 if another scheme at Sizewell, Suffolk, goes ahead. The current market price for a megawatt hour is just £38.91.