John Fingleton@JohnFingleton1
The Prime Minister has today issued a strategic steer to the nuclear sector. This implements the first recommendation in the Report of the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce and I welcome it. I also welcome the Prime Minister's commitment to the complete implementation of the recommendations within two years.
The response to this Report has been overwhelmingly positive from industry, regulators, trades unions, international bodies, and many others. There is a huge public appetite to tackle the regulatory and cultural obstacles to faster and cheaper nuclear energy. Many people have responded that some the recommendations should be applied more widely across other infrastructure projects.
The full implementation of this report will have huge benefits including:
- Lower energy prices, driving down the cost of living
- Greater competitiveness for our exporting industries
- Higher productivity growth to raise living standards
- Confidence for investors in AI, quantum and other technoligies
- Faster decarbonisation of our energy system
- A much lower decommissioning bill for the taxpayer
- A stronger nuclear deterrent
In my letter to the Prime Minister on Monday, I said "Reforming regulation is very difficult because our system gives many the power to block change, but few the incentive or ability to enable it. Each government department has its own priorities and constraints. This makes it difficult to get them to prioritise systemic government-wide reforms that require coordinated effort and political capital across departments."
The public is crying out for strong political leadership on this. The Prime Minister's commitment to do a complete implementation of the report's recommendations by the end of 2027 is just the beginning of a long and difficult process. Many people will urge the Government to settle for the status quo, water down recommendations, or kill them with process. This should be resisted strongly because getting this right is essential for the future prosperity and security of the United Kingdom.