Hinkley Point risky deal, says NAO

The £18billion nuclear power station project at Hinkley Point C in Berkshire, in which the China General Nuclear Power Corporation has 33 per cent  stake, ‘has locked consumers into a risky and expensive project with uncertain strategic and economic benefits’ according to a National Audit Office Report released today.

The report found that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy had not considered the costs and risks of its deal for consumers beyond 2030, and that cost of top-up payments under the Hinkley Point C’s contract for difference has increased from £6billion to £30billion.

It will ‘not be known for decades whether Hinkley Point C will be value for money’, or if the project will require ‘further financial support from the government’, claims the report, and arrangements must be put in place that ‘maximises Hinkley Point C’s value for consumers and taxpayers’.

The nuclear power station, currently under construction and 66 per cent owned by EDF energy, is a major plank in the government’s drive to deliver low carbon electricity to UK consumers.