The UK Government has unveiled a colossal £14.2 billion investment in the Sizewell C nuclear project, trumpeting it as the start of a so-called golden age for nuclear energy.
They promise 10,000 jobs, 1,500 apprenticeships and the power to keep millions of homes running with British-made electricity.
But in Scotland, there’s little reason to cheer.
While the Chancellor and Energy Secretary make lofty declarations about clean energy and national renewal, this latest spending spree adds to a growing pattern.
Westminster is throwing tens of billions at England’s energy future while treating Scotland like a footnote.
The figures are eye-watering.
This one announcement alone puts £14.2 billion into a project in Suffolk.
That follows earlier commitments bringing the UK Government’s total spend on nuclear and carbon capture in England to more than £36 billion.
Meanwhile, the Acorn Carbon Capture project in Aberdeenshire, long touted as a key pillar of Scotland’s net zero ambitions continues to gather dust, unfunded and unprioritised.
Even as Grangemouth shuts down and Scottish energy jobs vanish under a stifling Westminster fiscal regime, Scotland is asked to clap along while Westminster cheers itself hoarse about job creation in Barrow, Derby and Suffolk.
The Sizewell C project, it’s worth noting, is already racking up spiralling costs.
Initial estimates have ballooned, and recent reports suggest the final price tag could approach £40 billion.
At a time when millions are struggling with the cost of living, questions must be asked about value for money and what sort of future this enormous gamble is actually buying.
The UK Government argues that nuclear is the answer to energy security.
But that answer is far from convincing.
Sizewell C won’t generate a single watt until the 2030s at the earliest.
And even then, we’ll still be grappling with the high cost of nuclear waste, the burden of long-term storage, and the enduring risk of projects overrunning and underdelivering.
Meanwhile, Scotland is ready and waiting with cleaner, faster, and less expensive alternatives.
We have world-class potential in offshore wind, tidal power, hydrogen and, yes, carbon capture.
But instead of meaningful backing for those future-facing technologies, we get sidelined.
Scotland is, once again, being treated as an afterthought in the UK’s energy strategy, a nation rich in resources, yet overlooked when it comes to investment.
SNP Energy Spokesperson Dave Doogan summed it up with brutal clarity:
“Scotland isn’t just an afterthought, it’s barely a thought at all.”
He’s not wrong.
We have the skills, the natural assets and the ambition to lead the world in renewable energy.
What we don’t have is the political will from Westminster to see that potential fulfilled.
Labour’s relentless pursuit of nuclear at the expense of Scottish interests is not just bad optics, it’s bad economics, bad for the planet, and bad for the people who live here.
A government that claims to stand for fairness should not be so blatantly unbalanced in where it sends its billions.
It is absurd that in energy-rich Scotland, households are still struggling with sky-high bills and shrinking job prospects in the energy sector.
That is not the failure of circumstance, it’s the failure of policy.
If Labour truly wants a just transition and a prosperous energy future, it must stop treating Scotland as a distant colony and start investing in the industries that can thrive here.
Because right now, we’re footing the bill for someone else’s nuclear dream.
