Member

I am also very conscious that, for some reason, it feels as though the pre-application process can go on for ever—but it should not. For something as big as, say, Sizewell C, I gave huge credit to EDF—which was investing in it at the time—for being there with the community. EDF was in it for the long haul; it was already in the community and was trying to explain a variety of things. Candidly, a lot of the community there wanted Sizewell C because it was going to bring brilliant jobs and real value to the people living in that area. With some of the other projects that I have experience of, there ain’t going to be any jobs; there is just going to be big sheds. I do not think they will get pylons, but there will be cables and all the disruption that goes with that for the local farmers and the local communities more generally. Those developers are the ones that seem to do a lot of desktop exercises; they just genuinely look like they do not have a clue. So that is why I encourage the Government to think again about the wider process for these elements.