FINAL COLUMN by Stroud MP Siobhan Baillie before General Election 

Just before the general election the government announced its preferred site for a third large scale nuclear power station would be Anglesey.

The announcement affects my campaigning for Berkeley and Oldbury too. Alongside Hinkley in Somerset and the proposed development at Sizewell in Suffolk, Anglesey will be the base load for the country’s green energy and net zero ambitions and give us much-needed energy security.

For Gloucestershire's Oldbury, the path is now clear. The future for that site will be the next generation of small modular reactors (SMRs). These are built off site and installed and the country will need a fleet of them in the years to come. Great British Nuclear – the body tasked with re-energising UK nuclear power – is in the final stages of a competition with manufacturers to choose an SMR design.

This works perfectly with the new nuclear technology park at Berkeley. Chiltern Vital Group with Rolls-Royce are establishing a low-carbon energy 'super cluster' at the site to attract companies developing SMR technology.

We are entering an era of huge nuclear investment. The Government’s recently issued Civil Nuclear Roadmap wants as much as 24GW of nuclear generating capacity by 2050 – much of that from SMRs.

I have championed both Berkeley and Oldbury to be a clean energy powerhouse over the last four years and to see them well placed to benefit is great.

It means jobs and investment for Stroud, Gloucestershire, and the wider south west region.

Nuclear is the only green high-density power we possess. Wind and solar are important but they cannot always work. Without it we will have to rely on oil and gas or face the lights going out. It’s that big a deal.

As I mentioned at the top of this column, there is a general election on in case you haven’t noticed! This has to be my last column as from this Thursday I cease to be the MP and become a candidate.

I will be campaigning to ensure I can restart this column as this wonderful area’s MP again after 4th July.

Many thanks to the SNJ for doing such a great job providing trusted local news and for letting me write to readers each week.

It is an excellent local paper committed to the area and good quality local journalism.