- Welsh Government has MOU for up to £900 million with Sizewell C supply chain, Scottish government has none
- Project replicates Hinkley Point C, which has spent £284 million directly with Scottish businesses
- HPC and Sizewell C have added £400 million in annual value to the Scottish economy
- Regulated Asset Base (RAB) payments to fund Sizewell C would be £1/month, or about £31 million yearly for Scottish households
Scottish businesses and workers stand to gain huge opportunities from the nuclear project at Sizewell C in East Anglia. The project is a replica of Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which has already spent £284 million across 171 businesses in Scotland and seen 1,500 Scottish workers travelling down to work on site. Sizewell C should bring comparable benefits.
Research from Oxford Economics commissioned by the Nuclear Industry Association has shown that nuclear’s contribution to the Scottish economy, driven by the projects at Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, rose by £400 million annually just between 2022 and 2024 alone.
The sector’s total contribution to the Scottish economy, including investment multipliers, was £1.5 billion. By contrast, the levy on consumer bills to fund Sizewell C and support this investment would be about £1/month, or about £31 million per year in total for the 2.55 million households in Scotland.
The Scottish Government, however, has not supported its businesses to win work on Sizewell C in the same way that other devolved administrations have. In 2021, the Welsh Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Sizewell C consortium, a group of nearly 200 businesses and trade unions in the nuclear supply chain that could see “an investment of up to £900 million in the Welsh nuclear supply chain and up to 4,700 jobs supported across Wales”. There is no such agreement with the Scottish Government.
Nuclear has made a significant economic contribution to the UK economy, with Torness alone contributing more than £16.1 billion. Together, Hunterston B and Torness have contributed more than £29.4 billion to the UK economy.
Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, said:
“The Scottish Government could cost Scottish businesses millions and millions in new work. New nuclear projects in England are already creating well-paid, skilled jobs for the communities that need them most all over Scotland, and the Scottish government should back its businesses to win even more. It should also get out of the way of new nuclear in Scotland itself, which would generate billions of investment directly into our national economy.”
Scottish Secretary Ian Murray said:
“This research highlights how Scottish Government policy is costing Scotland investment and jobs. We have already seen from Hinkley Point C that Scottish businesses and workers can benefit enormously from these projects. Yet while the Welsh Government has signed an MOU with Sizewell C that could see up to £900 million invested in the Welsh nuclear supply chain, the Scottish Government has no such agreement.
“The UK Government is driving forward nuclear power in other parts of the UK, but in Scotland the Scottish Government continues to block new nuclear sites. That means that Scotland is being left behind, missing out on jobs, growth and the billions of pounds of investment that new nuclear could bring directly to our economy. I urge the Scottish Government again to put Scotland first and drop their ideological block.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- The Hinkley Point C spend in Scotland is in the project’s 2025 socio-economic brochure: https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/nuclear-new-build-projects/hinkley-point-c/realising-socio-economic-benefits.
- The GMB estimated 1500 Scottish workers are travelling to Hinkley Point C: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/over-1500-scots-travelling-somerset-33365556
- The report Delivering Value: The Economic Impact of the Civil Nuclear Industry from 2023 is available here: https://www.niauk.org/delivering-value/.
- The 2025 report is available here: https://www.niauk.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2025-Economic-Impact-of-the-Civil-Nuclear-Industry.pdf.
- Information on the Welsh Government’s MOU with the Sizewell Consortium can be found here: https://www.gov.wales/welsh-government-signs-mou-sizewell-c-consortium.
About the NIA
As the trade association for the civil nuclear industry in the UK, the Nuclear Industry
Association represents 300 companies across the UK’s nuclear supply chain.
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