Nuke Family Silver Sold Off To French

The government has finally sold off the nuclear silver to the French government after the deal was put on hold to stave of the embarrassment of an announcement at the same time as a huge hike in gas bills. Hiking up gas prices, reporting huge profits, then buying nuclear plants, just wouldn't look good. 

Now the nuclear power company, British Energy - one of the few part publicly-owned firms left to sell - has been sold to French firm, EDF, in a £12 billion deal with around £4 billion of that filling the coffers to prop up Brown's ailing economy.

In addition, British Gas owner Centrica, which also announced huge profits and an equally huge rise in gas bills, will take a 25% stake in all new nuclear plants built by EDF.

British Energy, which owns eight UK nuclear power stations, has been on the books for months.

French government-owned EDF, along with British Gas owner, Centrica, had been widely expected to announce it was buying British Energy in August. 

Then, shortly after announcing huge profits and a steep rise in gas bills, out of the blue, EDF put out a statement in the middle of the night, saying "conditions were not right" to proceed with the deal. 

Brown had hoped to tap into the Saudis £500 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund when he tried to sell it off to the Saudis on his visit in June. That deal didn't come off. Maybe selling out nuclear industry to the Middle East was just too politically sensitive. 

So instead it is set to be sold off to the French government-owned EDF - and a lot of groundwork has been done to make this possible. 

British Energy is the last business part-owned by the state which has 37% stake and by law required a UK boss. So the rules were changed so a foreign firm and boss can take it over. 

Then, there would be opposition and long planning delays in building and replacing nuclear power stations. The planning laws are due to be changed with an unelected and unaccountable quango brought in to push it through.

It's a victory too for the nuclear lobby and in particular Gordon Brown's brother Andrew Brown, who is Head of Corporate Communications at EDF Energy.

EDF, with an 87% French government stake, is already one of the big six energy suppliers in the UK, along with Centrica.

Regardless of a Centrica stake in the company, the deal is still likely to be controversial, particularly over whether EDF should be able to develop new power plants on existing British Energy sites. 

And there's also the vexed issue of whether the UK's nuclear power industry should be placed in the hands of a firm run by a French government company.

The government has finally sold off the last thing we owned, the family silver.

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Nuke Plants Sell-Off Blow To Brown

The £12 billion deal to buy the UK's nuclear power stations has been called off for the time being, in a further blow to Brown's nuclear plans and efforts to raise cash for his struggling economy. The deal will be back on the cards when the time is right. 

French government-owned EDF, along with British Gas owner, Centrica, had been widely expected to announce it was buying British Energy, which owns nuclear reactors in the UK.

Then, out of the blue, EDF put out a statement in the middle of the night, saying "conditions were not right" to proceed with the deal. British Energy too wasn't happy with the offer.

Centrica sparked outrage when it raised gas prices by a staggering 35% and still managed to make £1b profit. EDF, of course, raised gas prices by 22% and was due to announce its half-yearly profits today. 

Hiking up gas prices, reporting huge profits, then buying nuclear plants with the cash, just wouldn't look good. 

The government has a 37% stake in British Energy and the nuclear power industry is one of the last things left for Brown to sell. 

The EDF deal would have made around £4 billion for government coffers and paved the way for Brown's big ideas on nuclear power.

The government had done all the groundwork to sell off British Energy - and even considered selling it to the Saudis.

Regardless of the bad timing, the EDF deal would have been controversial. Questions would have been asked whether the UK's nuclear power industry should be placed in the hands of a French government company. Better to bury the sale on a bad news day.

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