Government unveils £14bn Sizewell C investment in major nuclear push

10 June 2024

The UK government has pledged £14.2 billion to the construction of the Sizewell C nuclear power station in Suffolk, in what ministers are calling the most ambitious nuclear investment programme in a generation.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is expected to confirm the commitment at the GMB Congress today, ahead of the upcoming Spending Review. The project, which has long been stalled by funding delays, will now move forward with government backing, creating 10,000 jobs at peak construction, including 1,500 apprenticeships.

Sizewell C, when complete, is expected to power the equivalent of six million homes with low-carbon electricity. The project will channel contracts to around 3,500 UK suppliers, with 70% of the supply chain projected to be British-based. Some £330 million has already been signed in contracts with local firms.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband hailed the investment as a turning point. “We will not accept the status quo of energy insecurity,” he said. “We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance.”

The announcement comes alongside a broader nuclear resurgence. The government is set to confirm one of Europe’s first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) programmes, and is investing £2.5 billion in fusion energy R&D over the next five years. Together with Sizewell C and the under-construction Hinkley Point C, ministers say this will amount to more nuclear power added to the grid than in the past 50 years combined.

The UK’s last new nuclear plant opened in 1995, despite the country’s pioneering nuclear legacy. Sizewell C was first identified as a potential site in 2009, but successive governments failed to fully fund the project until now.