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“The subsidy could end up costing households £30bn”
Greg Clark’s dance of the seven energy veils culminates in the industrial strategy, due to be published on 27 November.
The past few weeks have seen a succession of announcements and reviews by the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) secretary of state, kicking off with the Clean Growth Strategy and bookended by Monday’s white paper, which is meant to provide a blueprint for the UK’s post-Brexit industrial future.
Low carbon lies at the heart of the white paper, with “clean growth” set to be one of the four “pillars” underpinning the strategy. This focus represents a big step forward from earlier this year, when Theresa May’s former head of policy, Nick Timothy, crossed out the term from the Conservative manifesto.
However, this week’s report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on the Hinkley Point C nuclear project sheds light on how things are not sufficiently joined up at BEIS.
The committee concludes there are “no plans in place” for maximising the wider benefits of a project that is being bankrolled by UK consumers’ electricity bills. The latest estimate is that the subsidy for the project will end up costing households £30 billion over its lifetime.
The PAC accuses the department of not knowing the extent to which British workers and companies will benefit from the project.
The government has a vision for clean energy’s role in delivering a successful economy; when the dance is over, ministers need to demonstrate that there is substance to underpin it.
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