Build rate for new subs difficult due to infrastructure

A senior figure steering Barrow’s regeneration has warned MPs that the government’s headline ambition to deliver a new SSN-AUKUS submarine every 18 months faces serious constraints far beyond the shipyard gates.

Appearing before the Defence Committee, Lord Case, chair of Team Barrow and former Cabinet Secretary, underlined that the timeline ministers cite for the next-generation nuclear fleet carries risks that have not been resolved.

Asked directly whether the programme is on track, he avoided any assurances. He described the target as “a very demanding target” and added that it would be “a real challenge to deliver.” Although the committee had previously taken evidence from BAE Systems on the shipbuilding schedule, the exchange exposed a parallel set of domestic bottlenecks that sit outside the MoD’s remit but still shape the feasibility of the AUKUS build rate.

Case argued that Team Barrow’s responsibility is not the assembly line itself but the town’s ability to sustain the required workforce. “We are under pressure to deliver housing, schools and hospitals to make sure that the workforce is there to produce the boats on time,” he said. He acknowledged that this supporting infrastructure is not in place. “We are behind where we need to be. We do not have the housing that we need for workforce growth.”

That admission raises questions about how credible the national commitment is when the enabling conditions lag behind defence planning. Case made clear that workforce readiness is only partly a skills issue. Even if recruitment targets are met, the physical capacity to absorb thousands of new workers remains doubtful because of long-standing underinvestment in local services.

The attempt to accelerate housebuilding has not yet produced material change. “We spent a lot of time together last month talking about how we can accelerate the house building,” he told MPs, but he stressed that operational details remain for BAE and the MoD.

Case’s comments show that the pace challenge is as much a civil-infrastructure problem as an industrial one, with delays in the former likely to ripple into the latter.