Where £80,000,000,000 a year will be spent in the UK’s Defence Investment Plan
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After months of delays and the resignations of two defence ministers, Sir Keir Starmer has finally announced his investment plan for the British armed forces.
It doesn’t include quite as much money as the Ministry of Defence was asking for – a key reason why John Healey and Al Carns stepped down – but the PM says its impact will be transformative.
In a speech at defence firm Molloy Aeronautics this morning, he said £80,000,000,000 a year will be spent on defence by 2029.
With Chancellor Rachel Reeves trying to reduce the government’s reliance on borrowing, much of the extra cash will come from cuts to other government plans.
Starmer picked out road and energy projects as being among those that will ‘not go ahead right now’ as a result – though he did not specify which.
The PM also highlighted a new military landscape where tanks, warships and piloted planes could be traded for drones and autonomous vehicles.
Downing Street has set out some of the big-money items set to receive a wad of government cash now the investment plan has been finalised.
Starmer said ‘every pound in this plan will work twice’, reinforcing national security while also providing jobs and economic growth.
The cash was found by asking all government departments to find savings of 1p in every £1 of their budgets.
Two departments were asked to find further savings due to their particularly large capital budgets: the Department for Transport and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
The Treasury revealed this afternoon the DfT is mulling the cancellation of the A38 Derby Junctions and A46 Newark Bypass schemes to go towards cuts of £700 million to its roads funding.