Will they or won’t they, that’s the question on everyone’s lips for Sizewell C. Given the huge challenges the project faces, will it ever be built? That’s the question our Gossage Gossip columnist tries to answer.
For years I have expressed serious doubt about whether the third nuclear fission power station at Sizewell on the Suffolk Coast will ever be built.
Yes, I know that the Government has formally declared itself to be in favour, but it only did so by ignoring the official Inquiry Inspector’s decision, that construction must not proceed without receiving firm guarantees regarding the availability of sufficient ordinary water supplies to function. And that, as I have revealed before, is definitely not forthcoming from the local water suppliers, Essex & Suffolk Water.
That water company is part of CK Infrastructure Holdings, the same organisation that owns UK Power Networks, just about the largest electricity distribution company in Britain – which just so happens to be owned by Mr Li-Ka Shing, who also happens to be a close ally of President Xi of China.
Coincidentally, Shing is known to be mightily irritated that Chinese money – 40% of the original construction total of Sizewell C – has now been forbidden at Sizewell by the UK Government on national security grounds
It is now acknowledged that the site owner, Electricité de France, is in such a perilous financial state that it cannot possibly fund Sizewell C alone, the cost for which seems to have increased by 40% to £27 billion even before any serious construction work has begun.
Special legislation has been pushed through Parliament that will mean that every electricity consumer, big or small, will be forced to pay into EDF’s coffers should any construction ever take place. But even so, that still leaves a hole of nearly £10 billion of investment capital which will need to be found before work can ever get going on this White Elephant manqué.
Earlier this year in May, amidst fanfares of publicity, the Government contracted Barclays Bank to provide ‘financial advice on Sizewell C’. Their role is simply to tap up one or more monied entities that might be prepared to fill the financial hole left by the Chinese Government’s departure.
The finders’ fee for this work is understood to be a cool £50 million per annum. The contract is for an initial two years, with an option to renew for a further 12 months. All of which means that the assumption has to be that it will be summer 2025 before Barclays are under any obligation to report back. In all probability, negatively. And construction will be no further forward.