UK defence
Healey to promise ‘new age of industrialisation’ with £6bn Royal Navy plan
Chancellor will pledge that work on building three new floating docks on the Clyde in Scotland will be carried out by British firms
John Healey, the current Labour chancellor, is a former defence secretary © Mary Turner/Bloomberg
George Parker,
Chris Smyth and
Lucy Fisher in Liverpool
Published13 hours ago
UK chancellor John Healey will claim Britain is about to enter “a new age of industrialisation” as he confirms a £6bn plan to build three new floating docks at the Royal Navy’s submarine base on the Clyde in Scotland.
Healey’s speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool on Monday follows a demand by Louise Haigh, first secretary of state, that more of the UK’s annual £400bn public procurement budget should be spent on British firms.
His address will be closely watched by the markets for any signals he gives ahead of the Budget on October 28. Healey has insisted that he will be cautious and one senior Labour figure said: “It won’t be a blow-the-doors-off Budget.”
But facing a Labour audience, Healey is expected to claim that Andy Burnham’s new government will generate jobs and growth at home.
The former defence secretary will promise that work on the Royal Navy’s Clyde base will be carried out by British firms with a “UK-only” competition for the work known as “Programme Euston”.
“By backing British shipyards, we are not only boosting national security but also securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future,” Healey will say.
“My politics were shaped by the industrial heartlands of South Yorkshire. Today, on the site of the Orgreave pit is Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Park. Our coal mines are not coming back.
“But this is how Britain’s industrial past is being remade now for the modern world. This is the new age of industrialisation.
”The investment in the submarine facility is part of a “multi-decade, multibillion-pound transformation” of the site set out in July by Lord Vernon Coaker, defence minister, who said the work would cost £15bn over the next decade.
The announcement by Healey will end speculation that the UK could be forced to rely on foreign shipyards to help construct the large floating dry docks.
The Royal Navy has been grappling with creaking defence maritime infrastructure, which has contributed to lengthy maintenance backlogs and the availability of its surface and submarine fleets.
Haigh, speaking at the Labour Party conference on Sunday, told defence companies and privatised utilities that they had to buy more from British companies as she set out plans to end outsourcing of government cleaning and catering services.
She also sought to pressure businesses reliant on government contracts to spend more with British companies.
Haigh said that “businesses who want to win government contracts are in no doubt what we expect from them — good jobs, skills and apprenticeships for people here in Britain”, having revealed her plans to overhaul government procurement rules to the FT in August.
Defence contractors will be “told to create British jobs and British opportunities in return for the billions they receive,” Haigh said. “If your business is bidding for government contracts to defend our country, then you will be judged on your commitment to backing high-quality British jobs.”
She sought to argue this was what Burnham meant when he said that national security “can’t come at the expense of social security”, widely interpreted as a reluctance to cut welfare to fund defence.
Promising to hold the government to the same standard, Haigh said she would start bringing outsourced government contracts back in house.
“When existing contracts end in 18 months’ time we will begin bringing more than a thousand outsourced cleaning, catering and security jobs across Whitehall back in house,” she said, promising this was “just the start”.
