UK does deal with private investors to build £38bn Sizewell C

The UK government has struck a deal worth more than £38bn with private investors to back Britain's biggest nuclear project in a generation at the Sizewell C site on the Suffolk coast.

- Jillian Ambrose

The long-awaited deal will be paid for through taxes and energy bills and gives the final go-ahead for construction of the project, which has almost doubled in cost since it was first proposed.

It brings together investment from the UK government and Sizewell C's developer, the French state-owned energy group EDF, with three other investors including the British Gas parent company, Centrica.

Sizewell C is expected to generate enough low-carbon electricity to power 6m UK homes when it begins operations in the mid to late 2030s, although an exact start date for the project has not been set by the government. The plant will create 10,000 jobs at the peak of its construction.