UK's £250M Defence Plan to Power Jobs and Growth Across the Country
The UK government has launched a £250 million Defence Industrial Strategy aimed at turning defence into a driver of economic growth. Five regions—Plymouth, South Yorkshire, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland—will receive Defence Growth Deals to boost local industries, create jobs, and strengthen national security. Defence Secretary John Healey said the plan would “make defence an engine for growth,” combining government and industry to “drive an increase in defence skills, SMEs and jobs across all four nations.”
This initiative comes as part of the government’s broader aim to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, with an ambition to hit 3% in the next Parliament. Backed by a recent £10bn warship contract with Norway, the strategy will support sectors from shipbuilding in Glasgow to cyber security in Belfast. Chancellor Rachel Reeves called it “a plan for good jobs paying decent wages in Cardiff, Belfast, Glasgow, Sheffield, Plymouth and beyond.”
The strategy is modeled on the success of the Barrow submarine hub and aims to repeat that success across new regions. While industry leaders welcomed the focus on skills and local investment, some, like Leonardo’s Clive Higgins, noted the need for follow-through: “We now need to see that demand signal from government, those contracts coming forward... to make those employment numbers a reality.”
