Three new floating docks for the Royal Navy’s submarine service at HM Naval Base Clyde will be built in Britain, with the work competed under a UK-only tender on the grounds of national security and sovereign industrial capability, according to the Treasury.
The commitment covers Programme Euston, the element of the wider transformation of the Faslane base that will deliver out of water engineering for submarines. The department says the new facilities will provide maintenance for the current and future fleet of nuclear boats, allowing essential inspections, upgrades and repairs to be carried out.
John Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will confirm the decision in his speech to the Labour Party conference, alongside a second commitment of at least £115 million for a new marine research vessel. The Treasury describes the projects as worth billions of pounds in combination and says both will be delivered by British companies as part of a greater focus on how government spends taxpayers’ money.
Healey is expected to tell delegates: “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. A new confidence in Britain.”
“Britain has a proud shipbuilding heritage, and every pound of this strategic investment in a critical sector is backing British jobs on the Clyde and businesses across the UK, supporting growth in every postcode,” the Chancellor said of the two commitments, adding that backing British yards boosts national security while “securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future.”
Wes Streeting, the Defence Secretary, said defence spending should make Britain stronger in every sense, and “that means backing British by buying British wherever our industry can deliver.” He added: “HM Naval Base Clyde is at the heart of our submarine service. Programme Euston will modernise it for decades to come, while backing British shipyards, workers and engineering. That is defence driving the reindustrialisation of Britain and strengthening our sovereign capability.”
GMB, one of the largest unions in British shipbuilding, has campaigned for Euston to be awarded to Navantia’s yards at Methil and Belfast and welcomed the UK-only tender. Robert Deavy, GMB Scotland senior organiser in engineering, said defence procurement must help create and protect skilled jobs and apprenticeships in the United Kingdom while underpinning local economies.
He said: “For far too long, huge UK contracts have been sent around the world to fund good jobs everywhere but here.
“The world has changed though and it is good to see a UK Government ready to invest in our sovereign industrial capability. It is beyond time.
“Programme Euston is a potentially transformative contract and promising it will remain in the UK will create optimism not only in Methil but in yards around the country.
“We urge the Scottish Government to work with UK ministers to deliver the investment needed to support the necessary apprenticeships and training to secure this contract.”
The research vessel is to be operational in the early 2030s and replaces a ship nearing the end of its life. According to the Treasury, the evidence it gathers will help secure British waters, support sustainable fishing and give coastal communities confidence that fish stocks are being managed for the future.
Euston has been part of departmental planning for some time, and the most recent annual update on the Defence Nuclear Enterprise set it within a multi-decade Clyde Transformation Programme, alongside the Clyde Infrastructure Programme and new programmes covering berthing, ammunitioning, logistics and engineering, with the base intended to operate current and future capabilities safely, efficiently and sustainably. Faslane is home to the ballistic missile submarines that carry the deterrent and, since 2020, to the Astute-class attack boats as well, so out of water access for inspection and repair is a constraint on the whole flotilla.
The announcement comes alongside a visit by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor to Merseyside, where on Saturday the pair joined a sea trial aboard the Royal Daffodil, the first new Mersey Ferry built in more than sixty years. The £26 million vessel was constructed at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, one of the yards that would be expected to take an interest in surface work of the kind the research vessel represents.
This is in the bag for Methil now, not really worth conducting a competition.