Shipyards in the front line of defence squeeze

Published on Sunday 20 January 2008 00:27

THE damning report by MPs into the Ministry of Defence, to be published next week, will only confirm what everyone already knows: the entire defence industry in Britain is under the financial cosh – and it is beginning to hurt.

In Scotland, as well as the human cost on the soldiers on the front line, there are also growing concerns about how the squeeze will hit the thousands of jobs which rely on the MoD for survival.

Both the Rosyth shipyard in Fife and the Clyde yard in Glasgow are utterly reliant on a huge contract to build two new aircraft carriers, the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Queen Elizabeth, which are due to enter service by 2016.

The futures of both communities rest on the carriers – which was why a shiver went through them when, last week, rumours of a delay in the deal, caused by financial problems, began to surface.

BAE Systems, which runs yards at Govan and Scotstoun in Glasgow, expected to start work on the carriers immediately after a contract to build the Navy's Type 45 destroyers is completed at the end of this year.

As with the Babcock International yard in Rosyth, any delay could throw hundreds of workers out of a job as a gap opens up in their order books. Union bosses say the first jobs could start going by October if a delay kicks in.

The MoD denied claims last week that the delay in the signing of the deal was caused by a cash flow problem.

Defence Secretary Des Browne regularly points out that Britain is now, in real terms, exceeded only by the US in terms of defence budgets. But the rise in spending this year is only 1.5% at a time when Britain's military commitments across the world are running at a historic high.

Stung by claims that they have broken the "military covenant", Browne and other Labour MPs insist that they are now funnelling more funds towards Britain's front-line servicemen and women as they attempt to prevent any more stories emerging of troops being forced to buy their own kit.

David Hamilton, a Labour member of the defence select committee, said:

"I've spoken to the lads direct, away from the officers, and although there have been gripes about equipment over the last couple of years, they say they are getting what they need."

But that simply begs the question of what will get squeezed? The shipbuilders in Glasgow and Rosyth are hoping it is not them.