Starmer to spend an extra £15 billion on defence by slashing funding for energy and roads
Key Points
- Starmer has announced £15 billion in additional funding for UK defence as part of his Defence Investment Plan.
- The plan is backed by £298 billion of investment across the next four years, much of which will be spent maintaining and strengthening the UK's nuclear deterrent.
- Starmer said funding would come from cross-department cuts and hard compromises on energy and road projects.
- Some planned transport and energy projects are likely to be scrapped as these departments are being made to find more in savings.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced £15 billion in additional funding for UK defence as part of his Defence Investment Plan.
Announcing the publication of the plan in a speech on Tuesday, 30 June, Starmer said that the Defence Investment Plan would be backed by £298 billion of investment across the next four years, including £15 billion of additional spending on top of last year’s Spending Review.
A large proportion of defence funding will be used to strengthen and maintain the UK’s nuclear deterrent, as well as on Project Royal Oak, which is the biggest naval base upgrade the UK has seen for more than 45 years.
£5 billion has been earmarked for a transformation of the British Armed Forces to adopt and integrate drone systems into their operations, including a budget of £650 million for cheap, expendable drones that will rapidly make the Armed Forces more lethal on the ground.
But the Defence Investment Plan, which includes an extra £15 billion in funding, comes at a cost.
While all departments will be asked to make marginal efficiency improvements to fund the increased defence budget, energy and transport projects will be specifically targeted.
How will the government fund this extra £15 billion?
Starmer said in his speech that the government had to make hard decisions to secure the funding necessary to ensure Britain’s defence capabilities are in order.
Of the additional £15 billion in funding, £10.3 billion has been identified today as coming from reallocating budget across government departments, with a source for the remaining £4.7 billion to be confirmed later.
Government departments will be required to contribute 1p for every £1 of their capital budgets from this year to fund defence, and the government expects that underused land and builds could be used to secure further funding.
The Department for Transport and the Department for Energy will be hit hardest, however, with major projects now likely to be scrapped to secure the funding required for defence.
The Department of Transport will be required to save £700 million from its roads funding, and will potentially be required to cancel the A38 Derby Junctions and A46 Network Bypass schemes.
The Department of Energy will have to find an additional £2 billion of savings, although the government has stressed its commitment to protect the country’s mission to shift towards clean power and build out its nuclear energy generation.
“The hard truth is there are no easy answers, but the settlement i am setting out today is the right choice for the country,” Starmer said.
“It delivers the decisive action we need on defence in a way that is within our fiscal rules and that will not take resources away from day-to-day spending on frontline services like Health and Education.”
“Some capital projects, for example on roads and energy, which are important but not immediately vital, will no longer go ahead as planned. But this is about taking the necessary choices, the right choices, to protect our nation,” he said.
“It is because we have taken these hard-edged decisions that we are able to increase our spending on defence.”
