How will Sizewell C be funded?

The power station on the Suffolk coast will be financed using a regulated asset base (RAB) funding model, after the government injected £100m into the project this January in a bid to lessen its dependence on Chinese involvement.

RAB sees investors pay for the project before it is completed and begins to produce electricity, with an extra cost added to people's energy bills.

The government says that using the scheme will add a few pounds a year to most people's energy bills during the early stages of construction, and an average of less than £1 per month during the full construction phase of the project.

They added that they expected using RAB would save consumers more than £30billion, compared to existing funding mechanisms.

But the model has come in for criticism as a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) consultation document into the funding model shows that energy-intensive industries, such as factories, will be exempt from the extra cost – but people on Universal Credit will still have to pay.

Green party MP Caroline Lucas recently told The Guardian: "When energy bills are skyrocketing right in the middle of a cost of living scandal, the last thing that people can afford is the ballooning cost of embryonic nuclear white elephants like Sizewell C.

“Not only are these projects extremely expensive to build in the first place, with Hinkley Point C now at £26bn without having generated a single watt of energy, the RAB business model passes that enormous upfront cost directly on to the consumer."

A spokeswoman for Sizewell C said: "The financing model for Sizewell C will reduce costs for consumers compared with other schemes. It will add a few pounds a year to bills in the early years of construction and on average around £1 per month during the full construction phase. Everyone will gain from lower costs by having nuclear as part of a future low-carbon energy system."