Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to Dorothy for alerting me to this.

In the Guardian today, the above and:

UK energy bill payers will hand over £2bn a year in subsidies to EDF, the French company building two nuclear power stations, according to government figures.

EDF, owned by the French government, will be entitled to £1bn in annual payments as soon as Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, comes on to the grid in 2030. The sum is due under the contracts-for-difference system that guarantees low-carbon energy companies a fixed price for the electricity they generate.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/28/uk-energy-bill-payers-edf-hinkley-point-c-sizewell-c

Will Scottish Taxpayers Share the Costs?

Yes, Scottish households (and thus Scottish taxpayers, as energy costs are a form of indirect taxation) will share the costs proportionally. Here’s why:

• Funding Mechanism: The subsidies are levied nationally through energy suppliers and passed on to all domestic customers on price-capped tariffs in Great Britain. This includes Scotland, where the grid is integrated with the rest of the UK. There is no geographic exemption or zonal pricing adjustment for Scotland in this scheme (a related proposal for lower northern prices was abandoned in July 2025).
• Impact on Scottish Bills: With Scotland’s population at about 8.2% of Great Britain’s total (~5.5 million people), the share falls disproportionately on all users but is distributed evenly per household. The UK’s Budget 2025 included some energy relief measures (e.g., bill reductions via windfall taxes), but these do not offset the nuclear levies specifically. Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison has criticized the overall package as insufficient for tackling high energy costs in Scotland.
• No Separate Scottish Funding: Scotland receives block grant adjustments from the UK Treasury (e.g., an £820m boost announced in the 2025 Budget), but energy infrastructure subsidies like this are handled at the UK level. Scottish Power (an EDF subsidiary) supplies many Scottish homes, directly linking local bills to these costs.

More plus the sources at: https://x.com/i/grok?conversation=1994495090434154547

With around 10% of the UK population, our share of England’s costs will be around £200 million to subsidise English customers on top of the higher bills we already pay.