Chancellor Rachel Reeves has signed off on £14.2 billion of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear power 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. It follows the government’s U-turn yesterday on winter fuel payments and comes the day before the chancellor’s spending review. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Rachel Reeves has gone nuclear ahead of tomorrow's spending review, announcing £14.2 billion
00:07of investment to build the new Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk.
00:13At the same time, Rolls-Royce has been named as the preferred bidder to build small modular
00:19reactors, or SMRs, in a programme backed by £2.5 billion of taxpayers' cash.
00:26And so because it is the right choice for jobs and for the cost of living, because it
00:30is the right choice for economic growth, and because it is the right choice for energy
00:35security, I can announce today to you that this Labour government is investing in the
00:40biggest rollout of nuclear power in a generation.
00:45SMRs are considered cheaper and quicker to build than traditional power plants, and therefore
00:52quicker to connect to the grid.
00:55Nuclear energy is increasingly being seen as an important electricity source as the government
01:00tries to decarbonise Britain's grid by 2030.
01:04The last time Britain completed a nuclear plant was Sizewell B in 1987, which went on stream
01:10in 1995.
01:12Speaking just a few miles away, at a college in Ipswich, the Prime Minister said successive
01:17governments had dithered and delayed over nuclear power.
01:21It's a change, not just an important decision for the future, it's a change of mindset.
01:26No more dithering, no more delay, no more being unclear about what we're going to do.
01:30A real statement of intent as we go forward.
01:33Former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised £700 million for Sizewell C back in
01:402022.
01:41Today's Conservative opposition have accused the government of lacking ambition in nuclear strategy.
01:46We've lost nearly a year now of the government prevaricating when we already had plans in
01:52place for things like small modular reactors to continue the build of Hinkley and Sizewell.
01:58So it's the right direction, none of that, because these will take many years to come to fruition,
02:04takes away from the fact the government said they were going to reduce bills by £300.
02:08Everybody's bill is at least £100 higher.
02:13The Treasury says the Sizewell move will create 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships.
02:20Plus the SMR project could support up to 3,000 new skilled jobs and power the equivalent of
02:26around 3 million homes.
02:27The campaign group Stop Sizewell C has criticised the decision to commit the funding, saying
02:33it is still not clear what the total cost will be, as the final investment decision has not
02:39yet been announced, and the government is still seeking private investment.
02:43Sizewell C is far too slow, risky and expensive to be the solution to our climate emergency.
02:50There are lots of other ways we could get energy security, there are other initiatives that
02:55this government could have chosen that would lead to the creation of long-term sustainable
02:59jobs.
03:00The Energy Secretary says today's announcement is an investment in lower energy bills, but
03:05admitted customers would not feel the benefit until the next decade.
03:09This is about longer term, beyond 2030, and this is the right thing to do for our energy security
03:16and it's cheaper than the other low-carbon alternatives that there are.
03:20Studies have been done on looking at this against the alternatives.
03:24This is right, you know, it's not just nuclear we're doing, we're doing onshore wind and offshore
03:28wind and solar, we need all of the low-carbon alternatives.
03:32Electricity demand is going to at least double by 2050, nuclear has a really important role
03:37to play.
03:38It's hoped Sizewell C will be on stream by the mid-2030s.
03:42Hinkley Point C in Somerset is under construction and expected to power around 6 million homes but
03:48is unlikely to open before 2031.
03:52The government's U-turn yesterday on winter fuel payments, reinstating them for the majority
03:57of pensioners, has been seen as a welcome step.
04:00For many bill payers though, there remains no end in sight to steep energy costs.
04:05And with billions of pounds being committed to the nuclear project, where will the cuts
04:09fall in tomorrow's spending review?