EDF will decide whether to move ahead with plans to build the UK’s first new nuclear power plant in a generation at a board meeting next week.

The French energy giant called for a meeting of its board of directors on 28 July, saying the long-awaited final investment decision for the planned Hinkley Point nuclear plant in Somerset will be on the agenda.

The surprise board meeting comes after French economy minister Emmanuel Macron suggested the final decision on building the Hinkley Point nuclear plant would be pushed back to September, almost three years after the UK government first agreed to financially support the plans.

EDF’s plans to build two new nuclear reactors in the UK have been dogged by delays as well as ongoing criticism that its spiralling costs, which will be subsidised through a Government scheme, offer a bad deal for UK energy consumers.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO) the subsidy bill to be paid by households and businesses for Hinkley Point has more than quadrupled since the agreement for the new nuclear plant was signed in 2013.

At the time the deal was signed, power price projections had implied a lifetime cost to consumers of £6.1bn for the subsidies. But as of March this year, that had more than quadrupled to £29.7bn due to significant cuts to official power price forecasts.