camelot-forum.co.uk

The UK government has been criticised for exposing low-income households to the cost of building the Sizewell C nuclear power plant while letting factories “off the hook” as a crucial planning decision is due this week.
If given the green light, the government hopes to use a regulated asset base (RAB) funding model to finance the project, which is being proposed by the French energy firm EDF.
RAB reduces the risk to investors, who will receive regular payments before the project begins generating power. However, it also means customers pay for the construction costs through higher energy bills.
A consultation on using the RAB model is due to close next month and shows operators in energy-intensive industries would be exempt but households receiving universal credit would have to pay.

In the consultation, officials said the exemption for electricity-intensive users – such as factories – would avoid the risk of putting them at a “significant competitive disadvantage” when operating in international markets as they may have to add the costs to the price of their products.

MPs had suggested electricity suppliers should be prevented from recovering the costs of their RAB payment obligations from consumers who are on universal credit.
The Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, said: “When energy bills are skyrocketing right in the middle of a cost of living scandal, the last thing that people can afford is the ballooning cost of embryonic nuclear white elephants like Sizewell C.

“Not only are these projects extremely expensive to build in the first place, with Hinkley Point C now at £26bn without having generated a single watt of energy, the RAB business model passes that enormous upfront cost directly on to the consumer. While giant companies are spared with generous exemptions, the very worst-off in society will be footing the bill. Nuclear is too slow, too expensive and the wrong priority.”
Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign, said: “Taxes of any kind hit the poorest hardest and this nuclear tax is no exception. Multimillion-pound businesses will be let off the hook if they use a lot of energy but a family on universal credit struggling to afford its heating bills will have to cough up to pay for an unwanted nuclear power station.”

Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign, said: “Taxes of any kind hit the poorest hardest and this nuclear tax is no exception. Multimillion-pound businesses will be let off the hook if they use a lot of energy but a family on universal credit struggling to afford its heating bills will have to cough up to pay for an unwanted nuclear power station.”

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said the government considerd it very important to support low-income households but believed that “support for vulnerable groups would be best tackled holistically” by looking at the factors driving up energy bills.

BEIS has estimated that Sizewell C would add an extra £1 a month to household bills to aid construction costs. But research by the University of Greenwich business school seen by the Guardian shows the average monthly cost could reach £2.12.

Ken wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 11:57 am I think it would be wrong to choose any tech based on the rich/poor argument as that is a problem for taxation/benefits/support etc.

The choice should be based on hard nosed assessment of lifetime costs,reliability, dependence etc.

I am not in favour of nuclear but i fear that is largely an emotional thing. The present leccy supply situation shows the wisdom of not all the eggs in one basket and perhaps for that reason alone we should have nuclear who knows -not i. My main aim would be to get rid of oil and gas everywhere and perhaps we need nuclear to do this?