The UK government today announced £40 million of funding to unlock thousands of green jobs by developing the next generation of nuclear energy technology.

Part of this funding will support 3 Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) projects, which are far smaller than traditional nuclear plants and use intense heat generated in nuclear reactions to produce low-carbon electricity. They can be used at remote locations thanks to their size, and can produce enough energy to power anything from a small village to a medium-sized city.

£30 million of funding will speed up the development of 3 AMR projects in Oxfordshire, Cheshire and Lancashire and drive them closer towards supplying low-carbon energy to the nation. The remaining £10 million will be invested into unlocking smaller research, design, and manufacturing projects to create up to 200 jobs.

Minister for Business and Industry, Nadhim Zahawi, said:

Advanced modular reactors are the next step in nuclear energy and have the potential to be a crucial part of tackling carbon emissions and climate change.

Today’s investment will immediately create new jobs in Oxfordshire, Cumbria and Lancashire. But through this vital research, the technology could also create thousands more green collar jobs for decades to come.

Today’s funding will ensure the technology is more attractive to private sector investors, supercharging the development of the industry and creating supply chains feeding future modular reactor developments. The successful AMR projects, awarded £10 million funding each, are:

• Tokamak Energy, Oxfordshire – working with industry partners and research establishments including Oxford University to develop fusion reactors
• Westinghouse, Lancashire – developing a lead-cooled fast reactor, a type of fission reactor
• U-Battery, Cheshire – working on a small high temperature gas-cooled fission reactor

On top of funding the AMR projects, the government will invest £10 million into turbocharging the industry – £5 million of that will be invested in British companies and start-ups, developing new ways of manufacturing advanced nuclear parts for modular reactor projects both at home and abroad. Regional projects that have secured funding so far include:

Cheshire

• U-Battery, Concept Development and Demonstrator for U-Battery AMR Off-Site Modular Construction in Capenhurst – £1.1 million
• Jacobs, Evaluation Technologies for Advanced Manufacturing Qualification in Warrington – £181,431

Yorkshire

• Laser Additive Solutions, SonicSMR, in Doncaster – £826,633
• Cavendish Nuclear, AWESIM in Sheffield – £1.3 million
• Sheffield Forgemasters, Large scale thick section electron beam welding – £8 million

Derbyshire

• Rolls-Royce Submarines, SAS in Derby – £259,989
• Rolls-Royce Submarines, FAST in Derby – £1.4 million
• Nuclear Energy Components, PITCO2C, in the Hope Valley at Bradwell – £378,000

Cumbria

• Createc Technologies, MW-CT in Whitehaven – £314,595

Merseyside

• Cammell Laird, FAITH in the Wirral – £5.1 million

Gloucestershire

• EDF Energy, in Gloucester, £1,373,095

The remaining £5 million will be put to strengthening the UK’s nuclear regulatory regime -– ensuring it remains one of the most robust and safest in the world as the UK looks to develop and deploy advanced nuclear technologies.

Recent research has shown that the UK’s entire nuclear industry could contribute £9.6 billion per annum to the economy and support 130,000 jobs by 2050, as well as creating significant export potential for AMR technology. AMRs also provide the possibility to diversify the UK’s low-carbon energy mix by producing heat for industry and zero-carbon hydrogen, and have already demonstrated the potential to stimulate private investment.

A significant part of the UK’s nuclear research takes place in a belt running from Cumbria to North Wales – a region that could be set to benefit from the nuclear industry’s enormous potential for job creation, in part thanks to this investment.

Today’s announcement – an important part of the Nuclear Sector Deal – is an important step forward in meeting the aspirations in the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

This builds on government plans to support tens of thousands of green jobs with a package of measures worth over £3 billion, unveiled by the Chancellor on Wednesday to power up the nation’s workforce and protect the environment.

Funding for the AMR and advanced manufacturing projects is provided through the BEIS £505 million Energy Innovation Programme. Find out more from our Funding for nuclear innovation page.

The exact funding of the Advanced Modular Reactor projects breaks down as:  

• Tokamak Energy Ltd, Advanced Modular Fusion – The Spherical Tokamak, £9,999,999
• Urenco Ltd, U-Battery, £9,999,195
• Westinghouse Electric Company UK, An Innovative Nuclear Solution based on Lead Fast Reactor Technology, £9,998,387

The £5 million funding provided to the UK Nuclear Regulators will enable them to continue to engage with all stakeholders on how they can progress future regulatory assessment that keeps pace with technology.

In March 2020, we introduced temporary easement measures to suspend voluntary strike off action in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) and we’ve reviewed these measures each month.

Following our July review, this temporary measure will be lifted from 10 September 2020. From this date, we’ll restart the process to dissolve companies that have applied for voluntary dissolution.

If you’ve filed an application to strike off your company (DS01)

On 10 September 2020 we’ll restart the process of removing your company from the register.

You may have received a letter from Companies House stating that your company will be struck off within 2 months if no objections are received, but your company is still listed on the Companies House register.

We may have suspended strike off action because we’ve received an objection to your application for strike off. Or this could be due to our temporary measures to suspend voluntary strike off action during the coronavirus outbreak.

When voluntary strike off action restarts from 10 September – if there are no objections to dissolution and the 2 month period from the publication of the Gazette notice has expired, your company will be struck off shortly afterwards.

Objections to a strike off application

Any person with an interest in a company which is nearing strike off should register an objection to dissolution at Companies House. If you’ve already registered an objection, but the time period for that objection is due to expire – you’ll need to register your objection again if it’s still required.

When we receive an objection to strike off, we’ll respond to advise whether the objection has been accepted or rejected. Every response will give a deadline and if we receive no further evidence that action is progressing by that date, we’ll resume the process to remove the company from the register.

It’s important to send any objection to Companies House as early as possible after publication of the Gazette notice and at least 2 weeks before the notice expiry date.

Applications from today (10 July 2020)

If you’re going to file an application to strike off your company from today onwards, these changes will not affect your company. The easements for voluntary dissolution apply to applications for strike off registered at Companies House before 10 July 2020.

If your application is acceptable, it will be registered and a notice published in the Gazette. If there are no objections to the dissolution, your company will be struck off in around 2 months’ time.

Compulsory strike off

The compulsory strike off process is still paused. We’ll continue to review this measure on a monthly basis and publish any changes on our website.

More information

The strength of the UK-India relationship was on show today at the India Global Week conference organised in London, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab leading a senior UK delegation that also included Home Secretary Priti Patel, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Trade Secretary Liz Truss.

It brought together influential participants from the private and public sectors to discuss India, the UK and the world. This included a special address by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales – who visited India last year – highlighting enduring UK-India bilateral ties and the importance of building a green, sustainable future.

The UK Foreign Secretary gave a speech by video, discussing the way Britain and India are maximising research and innovation links to tackle the challenges posted by COVID-19 and climate change.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said:

As leaders in the international COVID-19 response, the UK and India also co-authored the G20 Action Plan, providing an immediate package of $200 billion of global support to the most vulnerable countries around the world. A vaccine developed in Britain and manufactured in India, if successful in clinical trials, will reach a billion people across the developing world, thanks to Oxford University and India’s Serum Institute. We also believe our friendship with India will be crucial as the UK fulfils its ambition to be an even stronger force for good in the world. When the UK hosts COP26 in 2021, we will need to be key partners in tackling climate change.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

Our relationship with India is deeply rooted in shared history, culture and our people to people ties. It is difficult to think of two other countries so deeply intertwined as the living bridge between our nations strengthens. Our partnership for the future is based upon our shared values and determination to be a force for good as we collectively embark upon new challenges and new shared opportunities.

Other senior UK speakers included:

Lizz Truss, Trade Secretary. She spoke about the expansion of the UK-India trade and investment relationship, including the path towards a possible free trade deal.

Matt Hancock, Health Secretary. He highlighted the strong collaboration between the two countries on health-tech and pharmaceuticals during the pandemic, the invaluable contribution of Indian professionals to the National Health Service, and new opportunities to work together in areas like genomics and bioinformatics.

Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth. He thanked the Government of India for its support in the UK’s repatriation efforts and praised the living bridge that links the two countries.

Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Member of the House of Lords. He moderated a dialogue on the strategic relationship between the UK and India.

John Murton, the Government’s COP26 envoy. The UK will host next year’s UN climate conference and he highlighted how the world can unite behind a clean, resilient recovery.

Richard Moore, Director General for Political Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He participated in a discussion on how the UK and India can work together to ensure that multilateral institutions continue to be relevant.

Alan Gemmell, British Deputy High Commissioner for Western India and Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for South Asia. His session focused on effective cross-sector partnerships to counter the COVID-19 pandemic.

Further information

India Global Week is organised annually by London-based India Inc. This year’s event was entitled ‘#BeTheRevival: India and A Better New World’. The full programme and list of speakers is available, here.

The UK is a top partner for India on climate change issues, having joined the India-led International Solar Alliance last year, which aims to mobilise more than $1 trillion of investmen)ts in solar energy by 2030. The UK will host COP26 next year, and this week announced a £3 billion green investment recovery package which will help build jobs, decarbonise homes and cut emissions.

In March 2020, the UK became the first co-chair of the Governing Council on the India-led global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), which aims to bring about a transformation in how infrastructure is designed, constructed, operated and maintained.

The UK has committed £313 million to research and development to support the development of a possible vaccine to COVID-19, and AstraZeneca is leading the development work with Oxford University and India’s Serum Institute. This builds on the already thriving science and technology collaboration between the UK and India which has seen joint research and innovation spending increase from £1 million in 2008 to over £400 million by 2021.

The ‘living bridge’ of people, ideas and institutions that tie the UK and India together includes a vibrant Indian diaspora of more than 1.5 million people in the UK. There are currently 15 Indian-origin MPs in Parliament, three of whom are Cabinet level.

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Mail to: ashwamegh.banerjee@fco.gov.uk

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Good afternoon colleagues and thank you, Director General, for the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion. I particularly want to thank you Guy, congratulate you and the ILO for organising these Global Summit events, including the Europe Day last week and Global Leaders’ Day yesterday.

I welcome the interventions so far today from the distinguished representatives of other governments and of worker and employer organisations.

The Centenary Declaration adopted by the ILO last year underlined the need for a human centred future of work and the priorities it set out remain valid now as we look towards recovery from the COVID-19 emergency.

As others have said, COVID-19 is the biggest challenge the world has faced in decades. The ILO and its constituents have a critical role to play in the socio-economic response. We all share the same objectives – to protect workers and businesses, and to support a swift and safe economic recovery.

And in the UK, we have had good consultation with our social partners on our response to this emergency. After record employment rates just a few months ago here in the UK, we acted swiftly to avoid mass unemployment with the introduction of a Job Retention Scheme in which the government guaranteed 80% of employees’ pay up to £2,500 a month, and a similar support scheme for the self-employed with grants that would help support workers and businesses through this time.

These schemes have been a lifeline to millions of people, with 9.4 million people supported on the Job Retention Scheme and 2.7 million people who are Self-Employed. This is covering in effect, over a third of working people in our country. We are making some changes to increase the flexibility in both schemes to help prepare people to get working fully again as we will phase out the Job Retention Scheme entirely by the end of October. For those on the frontline, we have ensured that our occupational health and safety systems continue to protect health workers and indeed all others who deliver critical public services. We have developed tools and measures to help the safe return to work for the wider UK economy.

Our main social security system, Universal Credit, responded excellently to the unprecedented numbers of claims. We made temporary changes on access to benefits to manage that demand and to get money to people as quickly as possible. We also injected several billions of pounds directly into the welfare system. The distribution analysis that we published yesterday shows that our interventions so far have largely helped the poorest in our nation reflecting the importance of social justice for this government and is at the heart of our decision making during this emergency.

As we are now over the peak, we are returning to a focus of helping people into work as quickly as possible. We must ensure that our measures continue to protect all workers in need, including those with disabilities and the should be irrespective of gender, ethnicity, race, age, religion or other status.

The UK launched its ‘Plan for Jobs 2020’ yesterday and it builds on and bolsters existing support offered.

Training will be crucial for those without work, so that they maintain their work-readiness and they may need new skills to quickly move back into work. We are particularly focusing on young people, who are already disadvantaged due to their lack of skills and work experience. That is why we have announced the largest ever expansion of traineeships to ensure that 16-24 year olds have the tools needed to enter the world of work and why we are introducing a “Kick-Start Scheme” to create more decent jobs for young people.

The impacts of the crisis are also felt disproportionately by women, who are over represented as frontline care workers and they experience violence and harassment in the workplace, and continue to do the majority of unpaid care work.

At the global level, the UK has made available substantial amounts of aid funding to help mitigate the impact of coronavirus on the world’s most vulnerable countries. This is in addition to pivoting much of our existing international development activity to provide health, humanitarian and economic support where it is needed most.

The role of social protection in reducing poverty, building resilience and reducing humanitarian needs globally is highly relevant to this emergency. The UK is committed to helping governments to increase the coverage, quality and sustainability of their systems and to build more inclusive systems particularly for women and girls.

A major concern is that the pandemic reverses years of progress towards the ending of forced labour and similar issues. That’s why we support the Alliance 8.7 call for an urgent and coordinated multi-stakeholder response to this common threat.

And finally, as the UK takes up Presidency of the G7 next year we will look to support an open, sustainable and inclusive global recovery to the pandemic.

Thank you.