UK scraps red tape to make it easier to build nuclear power plants

Mini reactors will be built for the first time in Britain 'to create clean, affordable energy' under latest reforms

More nuclear plants, such as Sizewell B power station in Suffolk, could now be built in Britain. PA

The UK is reforming planning rules to make it easier to build new nuclear power plants.

The measures will pave the way for small modular reactors to be built for the first time in the country, which ministers say will help to deliver clean, secure and more affordable energy.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said "archaic" rules will be dropped in a bid to ensure the UK can be more competitive in the global race for cleaner and cheaper energy.

The sector has faced years of delays and obstruction, with last nuclear power station built in the UK in 1995.

Under the move, which is expected to generate thousands of highly skilled jobs, mini-nuclear power stations will be included in planning rules for the first time.

“This country hasn’t built a nuclear power station in decades. We’ve been let down and left behind," Mr Starmer said. “Our energy security has been hostage to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin for too long, with British prices skyrocketing at his whims.

“I’m putting an end to it – changing the rules to back the builders of this nation and saying no to the blockers who have strangled our chances of cheaper energy, growth and jobs for far too long.

"We were a leader in nuclear and I'm determined we will be a leader again. This is a real gamechanger."

Expiry dates on nuclear planning rules will be scrapped and a nuclear regulatory task force will be established.

Ministers said Britain is considered one of the world’s most expensive countries in which to build nuclear power, so the task force can speed up the approval of new reactor designs and streamline how developers engage with regulators.

“Build, build, build – that is what Britain’s clean energy mission is all about, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. “The British people have been left vulnerable to global energy markets for too long – and the only way out is to build our way to a new era of clean electricity.”

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said the plans are the strongest signal yet that new nuclear is "critical to the growth and clean power mission" of the government.

“A more streamlined planning system will give certainty to investors, the supply chain and communities, and will enable us to get on with building new nuclear plants on more sites, and at pace, for a cleaner, more secure power system," he said.

Conservative shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie said it was “about time that Labour started to follow our lead in recognising the benefits of stable, reliable, baseload nuclear power”.

“But it’s little comfort when Ed Miliband’s ideological approach to energy is sending bills through the roof, British jobs abroad and denying billions of pounds of investment into Britain," he said.

Environmental group Greenpeace has voiced scepticism at the changes and has urged the government to focus on renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Labour presents "as fact things which are merely optimistic conjecture on small nuclear reactor cost, speed of delivery and safety, which is courageous – or stupid – given that not a single one has been built", Greenpeace policy director Doug Parr said.

Dale Vince, green industrialist and founder of Ecotricity, has also questioned whether the reforms will save money.

“We keep hearing that small modular reactors will be cheaper than the big ones and they’ll bring our energy bills down – but no one, no one at all, ever tells us what the price of the energy will be, the government and the industry just don’t say," he said.

“You have to wonder why – if they’re definitely cheaper and will bring bills down, then give us the numbers.”

Britain has five nuclear power plants in operation, four of which will have their lifetime extended, according to an announcement in December by their French operator EDF. Under the current system, only eight sites in the UK can be used for nuclear plants – these rules will now be scrapped.

China is currently building 29 nuclear reactors and the European Union has 12 at planning stage.