Hinkley Point C is not an economically attractive project for its investors, chancellor Philip Hammond has suggested. In evidence to the Lords Economic Affairs Committee, he said the deal had clearly been agreed by French and Chinese nuclear utilities EDF and CGN “for strategic business reasons rather than transactional reasons”. “They are not motivated primarily by the economics of the individual projects,” he said. He insisted there was a “pipeline” of UK nuclear plants, at Wylfa, Moorside, Sizewell C and Bradwell.