Spending watchdog condemns 'risky and expensive' Hinkley Point

Damning report says nuclear project is bad for UK consumers and governments failed to assess alternative finance models

Generations of British consumers have been locked into a "risky and expensive" project by the UK's subsidy deal for a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, according to a damning report by the spending watchdog.

The National Audit Office said the contract sealed by ministers last September with EDF to construct the country's first new atomic reactors in two decades would provide "uncertain strategic and economic benefits".