The UK urgently needs planning reform to get critical infrastructure like new nuclear built more quickly, the London-based Nuclear Industry Association has said.

Tom Greatrex, the association’s chief executive, said the two-unit Sizewell C nuclear project has taken 50% longer to consent than Hinkley Point C, with thousands more pages of supporting documentation required, even though it’s a replica project.

“That’s unacceptable,” Greatrex said. “It’s time for the government to cut the red tape and inject some pace into our drive for energy security and net zero.”

Greatrex was responding to a report by the independent Climate Change Committee (CCC), which says a number of processes – including planning, consenting and connections – must be “urgently reformed” to deploy infrastructure at sufficient speed to deliver the required range of system components by 2035.