France accused of ‘unacceptable’ behaviour over Hinkley costs
FRANCE’S demands for UK taxpayers to help fund Hinkley Point C are “wholly unacceptable”, according to the former energy secretary who helped develop the nuclear project.
Chris Huhne, who was energy secretary from 2010 to 2012, said he was “astonished and saddened to hear that both Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, and Luc Rémont, chief executive of EDF, were pressing the UK to help with the cost overruns.
Mr Huhne was a leading architect of the deal with EDF, France’s state-owned electricity supplier, to build the nuclear power station.
Under the deal, finally signed off by Mr Huhne’s successor, Sir Ed Davey, EDF was responsible for all the estimated £18bn costs,with a start date of 2025. Costs have since risen to £46bn, equivalent to £700 for everyone in the UK, with an earliest start date of 2031. The delays have prompted French ministers to demand the UK help cover the extra costs.
In a letter to the Financial Times, Mr Huhne said: “I regret EDF’S €12.9bn (£11bn) writedown, but it is the French company’s responsibility.
“I will save French blushes by not quoting all the promises that were made by the company about the low cost of its nuclear energy (a fraction even of what was ultimately agreed).
“What is wholly unacceptable, however, is the notion that the UK taxpayer should in any way be on the hook for cost overruns when it was always made utterly explicit – by me and my successor [Ed Davey] – that this would never happen. A clear condition of the Hinkley project was that EDF would be entirely and solely responsible for the construction costs and risks, and the UK Government would merely guarantee a price for the electricity output once the plant started.”
It follows comments from Mr Le Maire at an International Energy Agency meeting earlier this month that the costs of Hinkley were becoming excessive for France to bear alone.
“There needs to be an equitable sharing of costs,” Le Maire told reporters, adding that he intended to have discussions with Claire Coutinho, the Energy Secretary, about the issue.
The UK has so far refused to consider paying more for Hinkley, pointing out that it is not a government project.
Last month, a government spokesman said: “Any additional costs or schedule overruns are the responsibility of EDF and its partners and will in no way fall on taxpayers.”