Ed Miliband (Image: Getty)
New nuclear power plants are to be built across England and Wales as the Government tears up “archaic planning rules”.
Mini-power stations known as small modular reactors are to be built for the first time ever in the UK, Sir announced.
The Prime Minister said he was “changing the rules to back the builders of this nation, and saying no to the blockers who have strangled our chances of cheaper energy, growth and jobs for far too long.”
And Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Build, build, build – that is what Britain’s clean energy mission is all about.”
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The last nuclear power station opened in the UK was Sizewell B in Suffolk, which began operating in 1995. The new nuclear stations, which Labour says will create thousands of highly skilled jobs, will be built close to sites where electricity is needed, such as data centres used to power AI technology.
While nuclear power has traditionally been opposed by environmental campaigners, Mr Miliband sees it as a vital part of plans to create “a new era of clean electricity” because it does not cause the carbon emissions linked to global warming in the same way as traditional fossil fuels.
But industry bosses fear a massive backlash over plans to build 1,000km of new power lines linked by pylons, which are required under Labour’s plan to transform the nation’s energy network by 2030.
They have called on the Government to launch a publicity campaign to convince people that pylons will actually make their lives better.
The alarm was raised by Charles Wood, Deputy Director of trade body Energy UK which represents National Grid Electricity Transmission, owner of the high voltage electricity network, as well as energy suppliers.
He said there was “a real challenge” winning support and warned: “We have to get across to consumers why we are building all this infrastructure and what it means for them as a person. There are some real challenges there with getting consumers on board and getting right down to the local level when it comes to engaging communities ahead of building any new infrastructure.”
Mr Wood called for a campaign to win over the public, saying: “I believe in the 1960s there was a campaign of a similar type talking about pylons being built and trying to get the public on board with it. That is the first element I would look at.”
And he told MPs there should be “a holistic engagement with the public to give them the understanding that it is not just about building new pylons, it is about making sure that we have enough electricity to meet our needs in future.”
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He said the UK is set to have 400,000 public electric vehicle charge points, millions of private charge points in businesses and homes and 5 million homes with a heat pump by 2030, up to 15 million by 2035, massively increasing demand for electricity.
New laws introduced by the Government as part of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill are designed to speed up the planning process and prevent local objections blocking schemes.
A paper by the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero warned: “To connect new generation and meet future demand, around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed in Great Britain by 2030 as has been delivered in the past decade.”
The Government aims to double the amount of electricity generated by onshore windfarms by 2030 while the amount produced by solar energy must be tripled.
Scotland and Wales have been identified as prime locations for new windfarms, while solar power stations are due to be built in the south west.