Sizewell C: Decision on nuclear power plant delayed

The planned Sizewell C plant is expected to cost about £20bn

A decision on whether to approve a £20bn nuclear power plant has been delayed.

The government was expected to make an announcement about the application for Sizewell C in Suffolk by Friday.

Business Minister Paul Scully said he had "set a new deadline of no later than 20 July for deciding this application".

"This is to ensure there is sufficient time to allow the secretary of state to consider the proposal," he said.

The government was previously due to announce a planning decision by 25 May, but it said it needed more time to look at new information and set a new deadline for 8 July.

Sizewell C, on the right, would be built next to Sizewell B, centre, which is still generating, and Sizewell A, far left, which operated until 2006 and is being decommissioned

French energy company EDF hopes to build a two-reactor nuclear power station on the coast at Sizewell.

It said the plant would generate 3.2 gigawatts (GW) of electricity, enough to provide 7% of the UK's needs, and could power the equivalent of about six million homes and will generate electricity for 60 years.

The government has already committed £100m to Sizewell C and plans to take a 20% stake.

• What is Sizewell C and where is it planned to be?

• Campaigners knock government over Sizewell figures

• Government to take 20% stake in new nuclear plant

Those against the plans have argued expanding the use of nuclear would be slow and expensive.

Campaigners also said the plant, which would be built near to a nature reserve, could endanger more than 6,000 species.

In response to the delay, Alison Downes of campaign group Stop Sizewell C, said: "It would have been farcical if a decision on Sizewell C had been made today."

Sizewell C would be built just south of RSPB Minsmere