Energy Minister Grant Shapps has unveiled his vision to make Britain a global leader in affordable, clean and reliable power.
In his first interview as Energy Security Secretary with The Times, Grant Shapps said: “My objective is to create the economy with the cheapest wholesale electricity price by 2035.
“Let’s have Britain with the cheapest energy in Europe.”
Mr Shapps has noted that it was wrong for the UK to stop investing in new nuclear power stations – the last time a new nuclear power plant connected to the grid was in 1995 with Sizewell B on the Suffolk coast.
He explained: “Labour did it for political reasons – it didn’t like nuclear for a large part of its existence. Perhaps because of the coalition government as well, which wasn’t super keen on nuclear, we weren’t able to progress even when the Conservatives came in. So it’s taken a while but we’re on the right track.”
Asked about sources of potential streams of funds to back the UK’s nuclear power ambition, the Energy Secretary pointed to the “private sector capital and investment”.
Grant Shapps said: “I was recently in the Gulf states and was really struck by the money available for investment.
“What they want to know is that we’ve got a platform and that we’re up for it – we’ve got the technology.”
Last week, EDF, developer of Hinkley C in Somerset, said the plant could end up costing £32.7 billion thanks to inflation.
