RUTH SUNDERLAND: Keep the lights twinkling

In one modern office at the Department for Business, the walls are decorated, rather incongruously, with portraits of bewigged 17th century gentlemen. 

These are, perhaps mischievously, said to have been brought in by Jacob Rees-Mogg, who for a few short weeks this autumn served as Business Secretary, and didn’t have time to take them away. 

Whatever the provenance of the art, there has certainly been an alarmingly high turnover at the department. Rees-Mogg’s predecessor was Kwasi Kwarteng, who followed a procession: Sajid Javid, Greg Clark, Andrea Leadsom and Alok Sharma. Grant Shapps, the incumbent, is our seventh business secretary since 2015. 

Planning ahead: Grant Shapps signed off on a £700m investment in the new £20billion Sizewell C plant – the first public investment in new nuclear since 1986

This is part of a bigger game of musical chairs following the Brexit referendum and the defenestration of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. The longest serving recent Tory business secretary was Greg Clark with three years. Lib Dem Vince Cable’s five years under the Coalition looks a marathon. This conveyor belt is another source of uncertainty in a difficult environment. 

We have no industrial strategy, possibly as no one stays to formulate one. The sale of corporate assets to overseas predators, including those linked to China, continues despite the National Security and Investment Act, which is meant to give a shield. 

Shapps moved retrospectively to unwind a Chinese takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, the UK’s largest microchip factory. Yet he waved through a larger £10billion sale of Aveva to Schneider, a French multinational whose most famous employee is the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Schneider’s boss, Jean-Pascal Tricoire, cites Deng as one of his ‘leadership heroes.’ 

The powers given to the business secretary under the Act are extensive but how they work in practice depends on ministerial will. Bad mistakes on foreign investment have been made, including the involvement of China in nuclear (now unwound) and communications infrastructure.

Under Leadsom, British Steel was flogged off to Jingye of China, whose chairman, Li Ganpo, is a former Communist party official. Jingye has been agitating for a UK government bailout, which may be granted given the importance of the industry. 

Flawed energy policy accounts for many of our difficulties and Shapps is right to identify new nuclear power as a priority. He signed off on a £700m investment in the new £20billion Sizewell C plant last month – the first public investment in new nuclear since 1986. 

The Government will be a 50 per cent shareholder in the project alongside French giant EDF. In this case at least, Beijing is out in the cold as China General Nuclear is no longer involved. The hope is that the relaxation of Solvency II rules will enable big UK pension funds and other investors to back infrastructure projects including nuclear. Enthusiasm is far from universal. 

In the new year, Shapps hopes to unveil a new body, Great British Nuclear, to push through plans to increase the amount of power generated from this source. 

Small Modular Reactors, which are being developed by Rolls-Royce, will play a big part: they are much cheaper to build than full-scale plants and may incur less public opposition. This, of course, is dependent on Shapps staying in post long enough to fulfil these ambitions. 

Nuclear power may not be the most festive of subjects, but it would help keep the fairy lights twinkling.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk