Government backs Sizewell C with £14.2bn investment 4j5mw

Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed the funding yesterday at the GMB Congress ahead of the government’s Spending Review today. She said that the government was "investing in the biggest rollout of nuclear power in a generation".

When built, Sizewell C on the Suffolk Coast will be able to power around 6M homes, employ 10,000 people and "thousands more jobs across the UK", Reeves said.

The Sizewell C project triggered its development consent (DCO) order in January 2024, which gave the formal green light for construction to begin. July 2022.

As of October 2024, Sizewell C had already agreed contracts worth £2.5bn with around 300 suppliers across the country.

The autumn budget last year said that a Final Investment Decision (FID) on the project would be confirmed in the government’s 2025 Spending Review.

Sizewell C is being developed by French energy company EDF, with from the UK government. Its cost has been estimated to be at least £20bn as of 2024.

The Sizewell C civil works alliance comprises Balfour Beatty, Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke. Atkins Réalis is providing civil engineering design services across the project.

The government is the majority shareholder in the project, a status it reached in December 2023. It pledged £700M funding in November 2022, £511M in 2023 and made an additional £1.3bn available to allow the early construction works to go ahead in 2024.

Work has since progressed to prepare the Sizewell C nuclear project area with site establishment works and civil engineering trials underway since last year.

Strabag UK started an artificial ground freezing trial at the Sizewell C site in January 2025 as part of preparations for main construction.

Sizewell C t managing directors Julia Pyke and Nigel Cann said: “Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Sizewell C, the UK’s first British-owned nuclear power plant in over 30 years. It’s a privilege to be leading a project that will create over 10,000 jobs, secure Britain’s energy future and revitalise the UK’s nuclear industry.

“We aim to showcase British infrastructure at its best – delivering a cleaner, more secure energy future for generations to come.”

However, some local and environmental groups have strongly opposed Sizewell C . They believe that the plant is too expensive and could have negative impacts on the surrounding environment.

Stop Sizewell C campaigner Alison Downes said: “There still appears to be no final investment decision for Sizewell C, but £14.2bn in taxpayers’ funding, a decision we condemn and firmly believe the government will come to regret.

“Where is the benefit for voters in ploughing more money into Sizewell C that could be spent on other priorities, and when the project will add to consumer bills and is guaranteed to be late and overspent just like Hinkley C? Ministers have still not come clean about Sizewell C’s cost and, given negotiations with private investors are incomplete, they have signed away all leverage and will be forced to offer generous deals that undermine value for money. Starmer and Reeves have just signed up to HS2 mark 2.”

Greenpeace UK climate advisor Charlie Kronick said: "The early estimates for the reactor at Hinkley C, back in 2007, were that it would cost £10bn and be cooking Christmas dinners in 2017. Now, in 2025, EDF is hoping it will come in at under £50bn and start up before the end of this decade. In the exceptionally low-expectation world of nuclear economics, this is regarded as such a roaring success that we’re going to try to copy it."

“If the government is to meet its vital target of a zero carbon power sector by 2030, nuclear power won’t be part of the solution. The government could much more profitably invest taxpayer’s money  not just on much cheaper renewables but also crucially on electricity storage that can make our grid more flexible and efficient.”

Small modular reactors y3a6u

The government yesterday also confirmed one of Europe’s first small modular reactor (SMR) programmes in the East Midlands. Over the current spending review period, it has committed £2.5bn to the development of SMRs – a much smaller type of nuclear reactor that uses different technologies, and parts of which can be built off-site.

The Rolls-Royce SMR t venture (JV) has been selected as the preferred bidder to partner with Great British Nuclear to build three SMR units in the UK, which will be the first in the country. The JV is led by Rolls-Royce and includes tier one contractors Laing O'Rourke and Bam.

Several sites in the UK are being considered for SMR deployment, including Wylfa in Ynys Môn/Anglesey and Oldbury-on-Severn in Gloucestershire.

A Great British Nuclear spokesperson recently told GE: “As part of its ownership of the Oldbury and Wylfa sites, Great British Nuclear is carrying out a number of preparatory works to get them ready for development. This is being done with the of several companies in the nuclear supply chain.”

The world’s first SMR was built in Russia and became operational in 2020. Other SMRs are under construction or in the licensing stage in Argentina, Canada, China, Russia, South Korea and the United States, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The government’s commitment to SMRs follows reforms to planning rules announced by the prime minister in February 2025, which have made it easier to build nuclear reactors across the country.

The government is also looking to provide a route for private sector-led advanced nuclear projects to be deployed in the UK, alongside investing £300M in developing the world’s first non-Russian supply of the advanced fuels needed to run them.

Companies will be able to work with the government to continue their development with potential investment from the National Wealth Fund.

As well as this, the government is making a £2.5bn investment over five years in research and development for fusion energy. This includes progressing the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) programme, the world-leading fusion plant in Nottinghamshire, and creating thousands of new jobs.

Reeves said: “Today we are once again investing in Britian’s renewal, with the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation. This landmark decision is our Plan for Change in action.

“We are creating thousands of jobs, kickstarting economic growth and putting more money people’s pockets.”

Energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “We will not accept the status quo of failing to invest in the future and energy insecurity for our country.

“We need new nuclear to deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance, because that is the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis.

“This is the government’s clean energy mission in action- investing in lower bills and good jobs for energy security.”