Cumbria’s defence sector could benefit from a reform of government procedures aimed at speeding up the delivery of capability to the UK’s armed forces.
Meanwhile MPs have been told some businesses are closing because of the continued delay in the publication of a long-awaited defence investment plan.
The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard, told delegates at the Defence Procurement, Research, Technology and Exportability (DPRTE) 2026 conference that contracts worth £4.9 billion pounds have been signed this year with 94% awarded to British companies. The length of time it took to award contracts will accelerate.
Yet earlier this week the Defence Committee, whose members include the Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham, heard bleak news from industry leaders.
“We have got SMEs that have had to exit the sector and SMEs that have outstanding payments from the MoD,” Samira Braund, defence director of the Aerospace Defence, Security and Space Group trade body, told MPs.
“In essence, the ecosystem that we are in is not in a great place; it is what I would call paralysis. Even though the defence investment plan is something that we have welcomed with 10 years of funding, we have now created even more of a feast-and-famine type environment.”
Among those calling for clarity is Charles Woodburn, the chief executive of BAE Systems which employs over 12,000 people in Barrow.
The company reported strong financial results this month but is keen to see what the future holds.
Mr Pollard told delegates an ambition to increase the amount spent with SME’s by 50% by May 2028 was on track.
With an eye on the recruitment needs of a sector whose output is in demand he also urged businesses to share their stories of the careers on offer at defence companies. He also promised an update soon on where new Defence Technical Excellence Colleges will be located.
“I do not want you telling the secret squirrel part of the tech that you make. I don’t want you just revealing the terminal velocity of missiles but I do want you saying that your sector, your company is a great place for people to work,” the minister said.
As for the defence investment plan he added; “There’s very few people that want to out more than I do, believe me and that will come out soon and we’re working flat out to deliver that.”
The defence committee heard from trade union leaders including Steve McGuiness from Unite who reminded MPs of the impact delays in defence contracts can have when it comes to maintaining industrial capabilities.
“We have a precedent in the past from Barrow,” he told the committee. “Submarines were not ordered for a significant number of years, and when the Astute programme came back in, we had to get Americans to come in to train people in how to go into the business of submarines. That makes it longer and more expensive.”
Mrs Scrogham agreed and set out how her constituency was hit hard by earlier defence spending decisions.
“I think few MPs in this place would understand quite as painfully as I do the impact of delays to those contracts,” she told the hearing. “We mentioned thousands of jobs. It was 10,000 jobs that we lost in Barrow, and we are now paying for those skills.”
She added: “We talk about the cost to the submarine programme and nuclear defence and just how expensive that programme is, but many will not understand the reality of why it is so expensive. That is because of the delays to the orders and the fact that we do lose those skills.”
The committee’s chair Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi thanked guests for speaking to MPs and said he hoped it would help put pressure on the Government to release the defence investment plan.
