Eight sites across England and Wales are in the pipeline to receive benefits for hosting new nuclear power plants.
The benefits could be up to £1000 per MW, stretching over 40 years. The funds are to be tailored according to each location and managed locally.
Ministers have said the benefits are to recognise the scale and duration of nuclear impact on host communities.
The proposed benefit will start once the plants begin operating; nuclear plants take approximately 8-12 years to construct.
It is estimated that as much as £128 million could be received by the area around the proposed twin-reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
The government plans to implement the business rates retention scheme for new nuclear projects. The business rates retention scheme links business rate revenue growth with local council funding. Rates are fixed but increase in relation to Retail Price Index (RPI), and are not set to change until 2020.
The rates were introduced in April to incentivise local government to promote economic growth, and will provide local government with 50% of the collected rates, with any growth on top, for up to ten years. Further funding from central government has been proposed for an additional 30 years, after the first ten.
All the business rates received from land based renewables connected after 1 April 2013, will be retained by local authorities.
The government hopes for investment and jobs. Business and Enterprise minister, and minister of state for energy, Conservative MP Michael Fallon said: “New nuclear will have a central role to play in our energy strategy, providing heat and light to homes across the country…It is absolutely essential that we recognise the contributions of those communities that host major new energy projects.”
The announcement comes after the world nuclear report stated solar is rapidly overtaking nuclear.
The government predicts globally there will be £930 billion of investment in building new reactors and £250 billion in decommissioning offline reactors. The nuclear new build programme in the UK is estimated to generate up to 40,000 jobs in the sector at its peak.
