Hinkley Point C: watchdog confirms fears of political vanity project | Nils Pratley

NAO report condemns 'risky and expensive' nuclear project that went ahead despite the economic case crumbling

The National Audit Office does not use excitable phrases like "utter shambles." But the spending watchdog's verdict on Hinkley Point C, the nuclear power plant in Somerset that is supposedly inevitable, amounts to the same thing. The government "has locked consumers into a risky and expensive project with uncertain strategic and economic benefits".

The 80-page report confirms one's worst fears about how ministers fell in love with Hinkley. First, they wedded themselves to an inflexible financial model. Then they agreed commercial terms with developer EDF in 2013, when energy prices were sky-high, and ploughed on regardless when the economic case for Hinkley started to crumble.