Ministers have commissioned a secret report on how to pay for a string of new nuclear power plants that is understood to suggest taxpayers could take direct stakes. Whitehall hired the American investment bank Evercore to devise a fresh blueprint for funding the fleet of reactors, in an admission that the model used to bankroll Hinkley Point C in Somerset will not be repeated. Theresa May approved the £18bn plant last week – the first new reactor in a generation – which will be built by two state-backed companies. EDF of France will pay two thirds and CGN of China makes up the balance. The deal, which has yet to be sealed in a contract, guarantees EDF a set price of£92.50 a megawatt hour, rising with inflation, for 35 years. Amid worries over Chinese involvement in sensitive infrastructure, the prime minister inserted rules that will grant the government a golden share in future reactors.
Times 18th Sept 2016 read more »