Spending Review: A £16.7b investment for nuclear power projects

Transcript

00:00We are investing over £2.5 billion in a new Small Modular Reactor programme.

00:06Our preferred partner is Rolls-Royce, a great British company based in Derby.

00:13This investment is just one step towards our ambition for a full fleet of small

00:20modular reactors, as well as providing a route for private sector-led advanced

00:25modular reactor projects to be deployed across the UK.

00:30Alongside these, we are making nuclear-approved land available in Sellafield to attract private

00:35investment and create thousands more jobs.

00:39And I would like to thank my Honourable Friend from Whitehaven and Workington for his work

00:43in this area, and to strengthen Britain's position at the forefront of a global race

00:49for new nuclear technologies, a cause championed by the Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward,

00:55and my Honourable Friend, the Member for Bassett Law, and to support pioneering work taking

01:00place in West Burton in Nottinghamshire, we are investing £2.5 billion in nuclear fusion.

01:09And to back British industries, pioneering work in carbon capture and storage will take place.

01:14Last year, we announced funding for two sites, on Merseyside and in Teesside, where we are

01:20building the world's first commercial-scale CCUS plant.

01:25Today I can announce support for the ACORN project in Aberdeenshire, supporting Scotland's

01:32transition from oil and gas to low-carbon technology, a challenge and an opportunity well understood

01:39by the leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sawa.

01:43And by my right Honourable Friend, the Scottish Secretary.

01:47And we are also backing the Viking project in Humberside, a cause long supported by my

01:52Honourable Friend, the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorps.

01:57And because I am determined to make sure that the energy technologies of the future are built

02:02here and owned here, and that those jobs come to Britain with spending review decisions means

02:09that we can invest in the wholly publicly owned Great British Energy.

02:15Great British Energy headquartered in Scotland.

02:19These are investments to make sure the towns and cities which powered the last Industrial

02:24Revolution will play their part in our next Industrial Revolution.

02:29To reduce our reliance on overseas oil and gas, and protect working families from price

02:34shocks.

02:35A new generation of energy industries for a renewed Britain.

02:40That is my choice, that is Labour's choice, that is the choice of the British people.