ALEX BRUMMER: Miliband is lacking the nuclear button

Until now, Ed Miliband largely has been silent on new nuclear. Addressing nuke industry bigwigs this week, the Energy Secretary declared that ‘nuclear offers huge opportunities for our clean energy mission’.

All that is splendid. However, the snail’s pace of British administration, highlighted by the Prime Minister in his ‘targets’ speech on December 5, always gets in the way.

There are real questions as to how hard Miliband is driving the atomic power agenda. If the UK is to have security of energy supplies, and persists with demonisation of the North Sea, then it is going to need a nuclear baseload. That is required to keep the lights on, and the electric vehicle network powered up.

In addition, it is also going to entail huge amounts of new electricity to power data centres if Britain is to embrace artificial intelligence and the digital world.

Miliband has bought time by extending the life of old kit at Heysham, Hartlepool and Torness. That is necessary, because decision making on new nukes has been so slow. The country is dependent on rackety older plants, often subject to closures for safety reasons.

The Energy Secretary made it sound as if Sizewell C was certain to get the £2.7billion of government funding, mentioned in the Budget, to push ahead with development.

Authorisation will have to wait until Rachel Reeves’ spending review which is delayed until June 2025.

Meanwhile, the government in Prague is pushing ahead with Rolls-Royce on deploying Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), using turbines pioneered in the UK’s submarine fleet.

Britain is in the slow lane persisting with a global auction before giving a domestic champion the go ahead.

SMRs represent a sector where a UK green manufacturing revolution is attainable. The horse has already has bolted to Denmark for windfarms, Sweden and Poland for heat pumps and China for solar panels. If SMRs are to power a fourth industrial revolution, Britain should take a leaf out of the Czech and US approach and get on with the job.

A decision is promised in the spring. Why are we waiting?

Direct action

Amanda Blanc lost no time in bulldozing Direct Line into doing a deal. If regulatory approvals are won, Aviva will rapidly secure the reins at the motor insurance pioneer, which was the first UK insurer to spot the opportunity of going directly to the consumer rather than using brokers.

Aviva is to fund the £3.61billion deal using £1.75billion of cash resources and the company’s shares. In contrast to so many recent bids in the UK, the transaction does not involve taking on a debt mountain. Details of how the offer will be implemented are sketchy, but Direct Line HQ is expected be axed, and policies and administration moved onto capable Aviva platforms.

There is unlikely to be any room for Direct Line chief executive Adam Winslow and senior colleagues, emigres from Aviva.

Winslow can comfort himself in the fact that his incentive shares will vest and could be in line for a payout of £3m.

The Aviva-Direct Line deal will face scrutiny by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) amid justified concern that the presence of much bigger beast in the marketplace could mean higher premiums. There is confidence at Aviva that it can demonstrate to the CMA that there is already ferocious competition in the markets for motor and home insurance.

When examined on a segmented basis, such as EVs, women and younger motorists, there should be no problem.

But caution is called for.

Rayner win

In August last year, I was given a forensic tour of Marks & Spencer’s flagship Art Decor store on Oxford Street. I had earlier suggested Britain’s favourite retailer was engaged in an act of architectural vandalism. After viewing the site, with its layers of industrial archaeology and leaking storage rooms, it was obvious that it was no longer fit for purpose. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner deserves praise for giving a three-year delayed rebuilding project the go-ahead. M&S’s next task is to find new premises for a food hall and for its fashion when one of its highest turnover outlets is dismantled.