Nuclear submarine investment will protect Britain and boost jobs, PM says
The Dreadnought-class submarines will replace Britain’s four Vanguard-class ships, which have been in operation since 1992 and carry Trident missiles to provide nuclear deterrence.
These Vanguard submarines will be retired in the 2030s, and Dreadnoughts will enter service at the same time.
It took 20 years for the project to reach this stage and was first announced in 2006 by then Labor Party Prime Minister Tony Blair. Ten years later, in 2016, lawmakers officially approved the construction of new submarines.
Thursday’s £8.4bn announcement marks the start of what is being called the fourth phase of the project.
The spending had already been planned and was included in the Defense Investment Plan published in the final days of Sir Keir Starmer’s government.
The plan envisioned £63.6bn over the next four years for the so-called Defense Nuclear Enterprise.
The bulk of the money (£47bn) will go towards keeping nuclear submarines operational, continuing Dreadnoughts, starting work on things that could replace them within 30 years, and building several new submarines and improving the UK’s naval docks and manufacturing facilities.
The Prime Minister will use his visit to Barrow-in-Furness to highlight how defense spending can bring economic benefits to the country.
“The submarines built in Barrow will protect Britain for decades and the 47,000 jobs and apprenticeships that will transform lives in this town and dozens of other places like it,” he said ahead of his visit.
“40 years of British money spent on British workers, British firms and British skills in places that have been wiped out.”
The government says spending on the UK’s nuclear defense currently supports around 47,000 British jobs and is expected to rise to 65,000 by 2030, including 22,000 apprenticeships by 2035.
Since becoming prime minister, Burnham has said she wants to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training and has announced funding to help those starting apprenticeships.
As a next step, Burnham said the public procurement process used to decide how taxpayers’ money is spent would favor companies offering 45-day work placements.
Speaking on Jimmy’s Future Jobs podcast,, external He said there would be “more social value weighting in public contracts”, focusing specifically on firms offering such placements.
He said the move was inspired by his time as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he oversaw an increase in the number of 45-day work placements offered by private firms.
But the announcement gave little detail about the scope of the changes, how they would be implemented and how many firms were expected to introduce placements as a result.
