Ten thousand jobs will be created as the Government announces a £14.2 billion investment to build Sizewell C nuclear plant as part of the Spending Review, as the Energy Secretary vows a ‘golden age’ of nuclear to boost the UK’s energy security.
The Government’s investment will go towards creating 10,000 jobs, including 1,500 apprenticeships, and support thousands more jobs across the UK.
The company has already signed £330 million in contracts with local companies and will boost supply chains across the UK with 70 percent of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British suppliers – supporting new jobs in construction, welding, and hospitality.
The equivalent of around six million of today’s homes will be powered with clean homegrown energy from Sizewell C.
The investment in clean, homegrown power brings to an end decades of “dithering and delay”, in the drive for energy security and kick-starting economic growth.
The announcement comes as the Government is set to confirm one of Europe’s first small modular reactor programmes. This comes alongside record investment in R&D
for fusion energy, worth over £2.5 billion over five years.
Taken together with Sizewell C, this delivers the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation.
Clean, home-grown power at Sizewell C will help drive the UK’s energy security, as part of the Government’s mission to protect family finances by replacing the UK’s dependency on fossil fuel markets controlled by dictators with homegrown power that we control.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said: “Today, we are once again investing in Britain’s renewal, with the biggest nuclear building programme in a generation. This landmark decision is our Plan for Change in action.
“We are creating thousands of jobs, kickstarting economic growth and putting more money into people’s pockets.”
Sizewell C
Sizewell C will allegedly provide 10,000 people with employment at peak construction and support thousands more jobs across the UK, including 1,500 apprenticeships.
The company has already signed £330 million in contracts with local companies and will boost supply chains across the UK with 70 percent of contracts predicted to go to 3,500 British
suppliers – supporting new jobs in construction, welding, and hospitality.
Jobs in the nuclear industry pay well above national averages and the government is committed to working with nuclear trade unions such as the GMB, Unite, and Prospect, who will continue to play a pivotal role in building the industry.
Despite the UK’s strong nuclear legacy, opening the world’s first commercial nuclear power station in the 1950s, no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995, with all of the existing fleet except Sizewell B likely to be phased out by the early 2030s.
Sizewell C was one of eight sites identified in 2009 by then-Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as a potential site for new nuclear.
However, the project was not fully funded in the 14 years that followed under subsequent governments.
The Government’s nuclear programme is now the most ambitious for a generation – once small modular reactors and Sizewell C come online in the 2030s, combined with Hinkley Point C, this will deliver more new nuclear to grid
power than over the previous half-century combined.
Small modular reactors
Great British Nuclear is expected to announce the outcome of its small modular reactor competition imminently, the first step towards the goal of driving down costs and unlocking private finance with a long-term ambition to bring forward one of the first SMR fleets in Europe.
The Government’s nuclear resurgence will support the UK’s long-term energy security, with small modular reactors expected to power millions of homes with clean energy and help fuel power-hungry industries like AI data centres.
This follows reforms to planning rules announced by the Prime Minister in February 2025 to make it easier to build nuclear across the country.
The Government is also looking to provide a route for private sector-led advanced nuclear projects to be deployed in the UK, alongside investing £300m in developing the world’s first non-Russian supply of the advanced fuels needed to run them.
Companies will be able to work with the government to continue their development with potential investment from the National Wealth
Fund.
Fusion energy
The Government is also making a record investment in R&D for fusion energy, investing over £2.5 billion over five years.
This includes progressing the STEP programme (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production), the world-leading fusion plant in Nottinghamshire, creating thousands of new jobs and with the potential to unlock limitless clean power.
Julia Pyke and Nigel Cann, Joint-Managing Directors of Sizewell C said: “Today marks the start of an exciting new chapter for Sizewell C, the UK’s first British-owned nuclear power plant in over 30 years.
“It’s a privilege to be leading a project that will create over 10,000 jobs, secure Britain’s energy future and revitalise the UK’s nuclear industry.
“We aim to showcase British infrastructure at its best – delivering a cleaner, more secure energy future for generations to come.”
“Sizewell C is absolutely vital if the UK is to hit net zero,” Warren Kenny, GMB Regional Secretary, commented.
“Nuclear power is essential for clean, affordable, and reliable energy - without new nuclear, there can be no net zero.
“Sizewell C will provide thousands of good, skilled, unionised jobs and we look forward to working closely with the Government and Sizewell C to help secure a greener future for this country’s energy sector.”