Defence Industrial Strategy 2025: Economic Growth and Job Creation

Lord Bruce of Bennachie Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Bruce of Bennachie (LD)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Bruce of Bennachie (LD)]

My Lords, of course we welcome the decision to award the helicopter contracts for Yeovil, which the local MP, Adam Dance, has been campaigning for, and we are glad that it has been signed. But the reality is that without this investment plan, there are jobs and investment on hold in defence installations right across the UK. They desperately need to know when the orders are going to flow and when the money is going to come through. We also need to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses have a real stake in building up our high-tech capacity and in filling in our munitions requirements.

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

On the last point, of course munitions are important, as we see particularly at the moment. That is why the Government are investing £1.5 billion in six new munitions sites. Thirteen sites have been identified, they are being reviewed, and we will come forward with those munitions sites so that we have them available. Again, that is money being invested. We are also talking about small and medium-sized businesses. We know that the future is not just in the big primes but in small and medium-sized businesses. That is why we have set up within the Ministry of Defence an organisation to drive that growth. Small and medium-sized businesses are crucial, and we will develop those as well.