Britain’s leading defence companies made a pre-emptive attack against possible government budget cuts yesterday as they sought to highlight the industry’s value to the economy.
The Defence Industries Council (DIC) released a report highlighting the beneficial impact that its members have outside their traditional role of supporting the Armed Forces and protecting British troops.
The chief executives of BAE Systems, Thales UK and QinetiQ, the chairmen of Babcock and Finmeccanica UK and the managing director of Rolls-Royce’s defence unit launched the report at a briefing in London. Their aim was to highlight the industry’s impact on the economy and call for adequate funding of the defence sector ahead of widely expected cuts to government budgets next year.
Mike Turner, chairman of Babcock and the DIC, said: “We are at war but we are still trying to reap the peace dividend. Because of a lack of funding, we have to slip programmes and these delays ultimately cost more money. We want a defence industry that, unlike the last 20 years, is properly funded.”
The report, written by Oxford Economics, a consultancy, revealed that every new job created by defence companies led to a further 1.6 jobs created elsewhere in the economy. The report also said that for every £100 million invested in the defence industry, the net gain for the economy was £227 million. The British defence industry employs more than 300,000 people, accounts for 10 per cent of all manufacturing jobs and generated £5 billion of exports last year.
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Ian Godden, chief executive of the Society of British Aerospace Companies, said: “We have been too quiet as an industry in telling people what we do. Socially, defence has become an unacceptable word and politically it has not been a priority, despite the fact we are fighting wars. We realised that it was time to talk about this because we feel passionate about the industry.”