Chancellor & Defence Secretary host defence firms at RAF Waddington
It's as the Government launches a new defence innovation organisation
Last updated 28th Feb 2025
The Chancellor and Defence Secretary have been at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire today to host a 'roundtable' with leaders of the country's top defence firms.
It's as the Government will launch a new defence innovation organisation - which it hopes will help to quickly deliver cutting edge military technology to British Troops.
The meeting comes after the Prime Minister outlined the Government’s commitment to increase spending on defence to 2.5% of GDP from April 2027 and the Chancellor’s message to European allies at the G20 in South Africa to jointly go further and faster on defence.#
The new unit will be launched in the spring statement.
The Chancellor, and Defence Secretary today met leaders from 15 British defence firms of all sizes at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire - one of the RAF’s busiest stations with airborne intelligence aircraft and systems – to discuss the how the new unit will operate.
Defence Secretary John Healey said:
"Defence is part and parcel of this part of the world.
"We've made this commitment to the biggest increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war.
"We will now make sure that it also has a big impact on growing jobs and businesses.
"As well as reinforcing our British security and thats the way that we can make ourselves secure at home but also strong abroad."
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:
“The world is less certain than it has been for a generation. History tells us that government and industry must rise to meet these moments together. We need to invest in sophisticated, innovative kit and get it into the hands of our fighting men and women.
“In the world we face, national security and economic growth are going to go hand in hand. High-skilled, well-paid jobs across the UK will both make our country safer and put pounds in people’s pockets.”
Defence Secretary, John Healey, said:
“The world is changing, and defence is changing too. We will back the high-growth, high-tech UK defence firms of the future, to boost our national security and make defence an engine for growth.
“We will foster the UK as a defence innovation hub, funding and supporting firms of all sizes to take state-of-the-art technology from the drawing board to the production line, and into the hands of our Armed Forces.
“Defence has a crucial role to play in economic growth across the UK - built on the foundation of the largest sustained funding increase since the Cold War - to support thousands of highly skilled jobs.”