From the Guardian yesterday:
Originally priced at £18bn, the cost of Hinkley has ballooned to £46bn and then there’s the delays. Back in 2007, the then EDF chief executive Vincent de Rivaz said that by Christmas 2017 we would be using electricity generated from atomic power at Hinkley. We’re now in Christmas 2024 and Hinkley isn’t due to be completed until 2031.
Due to a novel funding method, a lengthy construction timeline for Sizewell will saddle consumers with higher bills long before it delivers a single unit of electricity at a time when there is clear evidence that we can secure a cleaner, cheaper energy future without nuclear.
The CalMac Clyde-built ferries?
The two ships, which were meant to cost £97m, are now 3.5 times over budget and will be delivered six years late.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-66945640
The Aircraft Carriers and the Destroyers?
A former Ministry of Defence (MOD) director who became chief executive of the European Defence Agency has accused the MOD of having a ‘long tradition of procurement disasters’ – and branded the Royal Navy’s £6.2bn aircraft carriers as ‘vulnerable white elephants’ whose only strategic purpose appears to be annoying China.
Nick Witney – who was MoD’s director general of International Security Policy – also claimed that the rocketing cost of Type 45 destroyers due to an experimental propulsion system that kept breaking down meant only six of the ships were built, rather than the 12 originally planned.
They have cost over £6 billion – exceeding the amount budgeted for in 2007 by more than 50 percent – and further eye-watering bills are in prospect to equip, protect, and staff them. Their only strategic purpose appears to be to sail through the South China Sea and annoy the Chinese – just when Brexited Britain will be anxious to boost bilateral trade.
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/royal-navy-carriers-vulnerable-white-3741076
Those tanks?
Problems with the Army’s troubled Ajax light tank programme are so deep-rooted they may never be resolved, the Whitehall spending watchdog has warned.
In a scathing report, the National Audit Office (NAO) said the £5.5 billion project was “flawed from the start”, with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) failing to understand the scale and complexity of the work it was undertaking.
It said delays to programme – which is already more than four years behind schedule – could now jeopardise plans to restructure the Army around a new generation of digitally-enabled armoured fighting vehicles.
That high speed railway line?
Britain’s beleaguered high-speed rail project HS2 has been accused of scandalous levels of fraud and mismanagement of funds amid soaring costs and government cut backs. The line, originally intended to connect much of the country, has been reduced to little more than a shuttle between west London and Birmingham.
Costs have soared on the project, with some estimates putting the final bill in excess of £100 billion [up from £33bn].
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Excellent John, but an alternative context –
Nuclear power had already fallen out of favour with the electorate (even in England) before Hinkley had even begun, the CalMac ferries had to be built and were never a concern to the electorate and still aren’t despite MSM’s best efforts to portray it as such, the Aircraft Carriers and Destroyers the electorate saw as yet another expensive willy-waving exercise, the tanks similarly but reminding the electorate that Ajax powdered bleach couldn’t take that nasty ‘imperialism’ stain out, the high speed railway line was pretty low on the electorate’s list of priorities despite having longed for government investment in public transport to at least try catch up with what most of Europe had achieved 20 years before, joined up thinking…..
Ultimately the only one to pass the litmus test of public favourability were two wee ferries built on the Clyde for Scots et al as it served THEM…
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Unlike the running commentary on the CalMac ferries since the first steel was cut in 2017, there has been next to nothing about the Type 26 frigates being built further up the Clyde.
There is zero interest about the Type 26 on BBC, Sky, or ITV News.
You can find out about progress on the Type 26 in Wikipedia and in UK naval/defence news websites.
Other countries also have an involvement in the Type 26 and there Canadian and Australian online articles.
But has it been smooth sailing for the Type 26 since the first steel for HMS Glasgow was cut in 2017?
HMS Glasgow is scheduled to enter service by the end of 2028!
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An absolute scandal. Beyond belief. Instead of HS2 the journey times in the North and Scotland should have been cut. To cut journey times through Britain. Historical lack of funding. Journey times take twice as long.
One the other hand the ferries are innovative and will save £Billions on fuel. The monies were invested in the Scottish economy.
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Another example to add to Westminster /Whitehall government’s financial and programme mismanagement as revealed by the National Audit Office.
Source: National Audit Office ( December 4, 2024 ) Increasing the capacity of the prison estate to meet demand – Ministry of Justice, HM Prison and Probation Service. (https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/increasing-the-capacity-of-the-prison-estate-to-meet-demand-summary.pdf )
Para 9: ‘HMPPS does not expect to meet its commitment to deliver 20,000 new prison places until 2031, approximately five years later than planned, exacerbating short‑term capacity pressures. Most of the prison expansion programmes are now delayed.’ (my emphasis)
Para 10: ‘MoJ and HMPPS now expect the prison expansion portfolio to cost at least £4.2 billion (80%) more than planned. HMPPS estimates it will cost between £9.4 billion and £10.1 billion to deliver its portfolio against its approved estimated funding of £5.2 billion in 2021.’
From para 11: ‘MoJ and HMPPS aimed to build and open six new prisons by the mid-2020s, even though they had no planning permission in place for three of those prisons by 2021.
‘The lack of an estates strategy also hindered HMPPS’s ability to engage early with local authorities and pre-empt predictable objections to proposed sites.’
From para 16: ‘The maintenance backlog has doubled to £1.8 billion from £0.9 billion in the last four years.
‘As at March 2024, approximately 23,000 occupied prison places (a quarter of places) did not meet fire safety standards (standalone smoke detectors are being used as mitigation in the meantime). HMPPS estimates it would cost £2.8 billon over the next five years to bring the whole estate into a ‘fair’ condition, more than double its current maintenance expenditure.’
Governments and their officials in ministries and agencies frequently exhibit serious flaws in the implementation of policies and the management of resources. What is notable across the UK is that the politicisation of shortcomings and the critical attention accorded them by the BBC and mainstream commercial news media is partial – biased or prejudiced.
In the context of this and many previous NAO reports, how often has this been a wholly appropriate comment – ‘imagine the political and media reaction if these findings came from an Audit Scotland report on an SNP government?’
Have these NAO revelations about England’s prison estate development – including a building programme going 80% (£4.2 billion) above approved budget – received ANY political or media scrutiny or comment? Anyone?
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