Defence in the UK

Last week there was a defence debate in the House of Commons entitled Defence in the UK. Inevitably during the debate the Defence Training Review was mentioned. Staff at RAF Cosford were under the impression that there would be a significant announcement during the debate regarding their future. But all they heard was that the investment decision should be made in the spring, so their future for now is still uncertain.

Costs are rising all the time and due to the credit crunch the affordability of the project was under scrutiny recently. During the debate Bob Ainsworth Armed Forces Minister had this to say:

“I am saying that we still have an affordable package that is far cheaper than the alternatives, and has been worked on over the summer. We will be able to go ahead with defence package 1 and get value for money out of the proposals”…

It seems to me that the Government are forging ahead with the proposals regardless of the cost. I wonder why...

The MPs Mark Pritchard and David Wright both expressed their concerns during the debate and David went on to make a lengthy speech about the opportunities available to enable Shropshire to emerge as a key Defence hub in the UK. He also talked about re-establishing the links between people and the forces.

“I want to move on to develop the main theme of my speech, which relates to the opportunity to create a strong and long-term defence hub in the town of Telford. We have a long tradition in the town of supporting our forces, largely focused on civilian staff working for the Ministry of Defence. In recent years, I have worked with the trade unions to protect jobs and we have had some notable successes. We campaigned to keep the Army Base Repair Organisation located at Donnington, in the Wrekin constituency, and the MOD recognised that the specialist staff there provide a flexible, responsive and cost-effective service in repairing and modifying armoured vehicles, and in developing new solutions for the protection of our front-line troops.

Alongside that, I campaigned with the unions to keep defence equipment support staff based at Sapphire house in my constituency. The Government—wisely, in my view—changed their mind and decided not to move those posts down to the Bath and Bristol area. They ultimately moved to merge the operation with ABRO to create the new Defence Support Group.

David's full speech can be viewed here.