JILL MORTIMER MP: Power station announcement part of exciting week for the town

Coincidentally, on the day of this fantastic announcement I was joined by the first Minister for Nuclear Andrew Bowie on his first visit in the role. I was honoured that he chose Hartlepool as the location of his first visit, and even happier that we received this positive news to round up our tour of the site.

You all know how passionate I am about new nuclear, and I took the opportunity last week in light of the site life extension news to make the case for AMR technology at Hartlepool, directly to the Minister for Nuclear. I must thank staff at the Power Station for giving us the grand tour and explaining exactly why Hartlepool is the right choice for the UK’s first AMR – we have the skilled staff, we have the land, and we are surrounded by the nearby cluster of industries which could use the high-quality high-temperature steam AMRs produce to decarbonise their operations and in turn the wider Tees Valley. I have been lobbying for months for positive news on new nuclear and this decision by EDF is a great step in the right direction. Moving forward, I have written this week to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking for his support for AMR technology at Hartlepool, and I will continue to work with stakeholders such as X-energy and Cavendish to ensure our Power Station has a future beyond 2026.

This week, I have provided a further update to constituents on the situation regarding general practice in Hartlepool – you can read about this either on my Facebook page or in full by looking at the latest article on my website. Following my meeting with the BMA, I received statistics from the Department for Health and Social Care which suggest that issues surrounding accessing general practice is not due to staff shortages (in fact, general practice staff numbers are up 45 per cent, compared to 2019 figures). In Hartlepool, there are 43 more full time equivalent staff, including GPs, nurses and pharmacists than there was before the Pandemic.

If you would like to read more about what our Government is doing to build on this, please visit my website – www.jillmortimer.org.uk