Among the large numbers bandied around by Rachel Reeves was of course well over £10bn of UK money for Sizewell C: and FID is yet to be taken! Exactly whether this dosh is envisaged as outright cash (as has been the case with the billions already gifted to EDF, even before FID), or dumped straight onto electricity bills, or a combination, I have not yet discerned.
It's still outrageous - at best a humongous leap of faith, the beneficiary of which is a French concern (and indeed the French state) that has proven itself many, many times over to be unworthy of trust in such matters. In return for what? A plant that, even on the most ambitious and optimistic assumptions, could not be generating electricity before the next-Parliament-but-two, and in the meantime will have cost all of us a great deal of non-returnable money. Who said politicians' horizons extend only as far as the next election at best, and the next headline at worst?
Well of course none of this is to be taken at face value. They are already pitching for headlines reading "thousands of jobs", although as we know, the hi-tech jobs involved will without doubt be squarely located in France. The sop of a bit of civil engineering for UK firms - and not even 100% of that, if Hinkley Point C is any guide, which of course it is explicitly meant to be! If Keynesianism is the guiding theory, you could get a great deal more for your money on vastly more useful civil engineering projects that might actually make some kind of economic return decades sooner than SZC ever could. Just keeping the money in the UK would be a start.
And of course there are other short-term considerations, the giveaway being Mr Frog who, on the exact subject of demanding more money for both SZC and HPC (for which, contractually, EDF has sole responsibility) recently stated: "We [UK + France] need to stick together on many subjects - on Ukraine, on all dimensions of our relationship". We may be sure he really means "cooperation on Small Boats", the carrot of which which the French continually dangle, and then promptly withdraw a couple of weeks later. Oh, and we must pay for that "cooperation", too. Such an easy game.
Why are successive UK PMs and Chancellors such soft touches? Blair, Brown, Cameron, Osborne, May, Hammond, Johnson, Starmer, Reeves ... it's only been Sunak who has ever demurred, and then without any meaningful force. The rest have all danced to EDF's protracted, staccato jig. I despair.
ND
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When my wife met Sunak she thought him an agreeable and intelligent young man, though weak on policy. Clearly better, even then, than all the Blair-lites who had preceded him.
I never did understand his lurching for an early election. Maybe he was just pissed off at it all - a job where you pull the levers and our Rolls Royce Civil Service ensures nothing changes - at least, never for the better.
Bit early for a de-rail, but;
France and Germany gas storage auctions; OK, it's only early June, but what's going on there? Long range weather forecast? That simple?
I have been told (fairly authoritatively) that Sunak bailed when he did because he couldn't bring himself to front for the 100% inevitable mass prisoner release when the gaols finally burst at the seems.
Why, what's happening in the auctions? I see oil rising on fears that an attack on Iran by the usual suspects is possible.
Can't understand why Blair doesn't get more blame for his 1998 decision to stop new nuclear build.
See? Weak on policy: all he had to do was release 'em all on St Kilda.
Or maybe Gruinard?
> whether this dosh is envisaged as outright cash ... or dumped straight onto electricity bills, or a combination, I have not yet discerned.
It's outright cash for a majority shareholding in Sizewell C Limited I believe - Ed said in the commons "The first government funded and owned nuclear power station in Britain since 1980." I think EDF keep a small shareholding.
I believe the FiD is about cutting a deal with prospective bond holders for the RAB cash, to make up to the maybe £40 billion to build the thing. I'd love to be a fly on the wall at the FiD bun fight.
The RAB model is that with almost all the nuclear project risks moved onto the leccy customers and the govt, bond holders ought to be happy with a yield only a tiny bit higher than a regular infrastructure project - say about 7%. Without the RAB model the literature suggests that on a 50% equity, 50% bonds funded new nuclear development the bond holders expect a yield of about 12.5% to cover the enormous nuclear project overrun or failure risks - maybe more that 12.5% now with the relatively high bank rate.
It's this difference in interest rates under RAB that the nuclear industry hopes will make new nuclear economic, as currently about 70% of nuclear leccy cost is due to the cost of capital - even worse if the project overruns so there is a longer construction period to pay the coupons before leccy is produced.
It will be really interesting if this works out at the FiD. I guess that's why Starmer said on the 9th "Sizewell would not be given a blank cheque", to apply pressure onto the bond holders at the FiD. Starmer is trying to say it can be cancelled if the ~five potential bond holders don't play sensible. The outcome will be fascinating.
The "£1 a month from each leccy customer" payment in advance is to pay the RAB bond coupons during the construction period I think, and once the nuc is producing leccy that'll pay the coupon and pay off the bonds eventually.
E&OE - the UK RAB model is hard to understand.
Nothing particularly unusual by historical standards. Looks like European storages will top out in the 80-85% of capacity range this year. It’s only been 100% (well, a bit more than 100% in 2023!) since, ah-hem, you-know-what and now the market, including supply has normalised. Actually, I say normalised, but LNG import, storage and boil-off capabilities have increased, so storage for natural gas is even less a part of the mix than it used to be.
https://www.celsiusenergy.net/p/european-natural-gas-inventories.html
No point bidding up for storage capacity no-one wants. And yes, super long range weather forecasts not pointing to any sort of severe winter, either. So there’s that, too.
That wise old guy Aesop had good advice in 'The Grasshopper and the Ant'.
The trouble is both political parties have dithered and delayed forever. No one ever gets them by the throat and no one loses their job or pension. So dither and delay it is until back is against the wall.
Already some talk that Palestinians are making their way to Calais as we speak. So bless you Mr Netanyahu, we are besties you know. Also, according to Voix du Nord the northern French trucking companies are kicking up a fuss about the fines those rotten Anglais slap on their lorries if a few lost souls hide in the back. A bit more soft pedalling won't come amiss in Frog land.
Meanwhile recent events in the ME also point to the wisdom of Aesop.
Nah: good swimmers could escape, little boats could easily land. St Kilda would be more of a ... challenge. The real bad eggs could be sent to Rockall.
I see that during the "good war" we seriously considered civilian genocide that wasn't bombing homes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Vegetarian
"The plan consisted of disseminating linseed press cakes infected with anthrax spores into the countryside of Nazi Germany. These cakes would have been eaten by the cattle, which would then be consumed by the human population, leading to widespread death and disruption."
Looks like the therapautic state is about to hit the buffers.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jun/13/councils-in-england-warn-of-mass-bankruptcies-as-send-deficits-soar
Council leaders in England have warned that a multi-billion pound deficit from years of overspending on special educational needs has become a “burning platform” that will push scores of councils into bankruptcy within months. They say time is running out to resolve rapidly growing shortfalls and are concerned the government gave no indication in Wednesday’s spending review how it will deal with Send debts, which are expected to exceed £5bn by next March. Official figures show a sharp rise in the number of children receiving special needs support in England, along with an increase in tribunal cases brought by parents challenging council refusals of Send provision for their children. Ministers confirmed on Wednesday they will publish a schools white paper in the autumn containing measures aimed at drastically reducing eligibility for Send support, potentially by raising the threshold for access to education, health and care plans (EHCPs).
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