Wes Streeting visits Devonport, and what it means for Cornwall

Four MPs and a submarine do not often end up in the same photograph, but that is roughly what happened on the water’s edge at HM Naval Base Devonport this week, as the country’s Defence Secretary came to see where £7.1 billion of government money is about to be spent.

Wes Streeting visited the Plymouth base on Monday 24 August, a month after ministers confirmed the funding as part of a wider record £26 billion investment in Britain’s naval bases, the largest such programme since the end of the Cold War. He was shown round by Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, alongside Fred Thomas, MP for Plymouth Moor View, and Anna Gelderd, MP for South East Cornwall.

A ten-year rebuild for the dockyard

The £7.1 billion is Devonport’s share of the wider naval infrastructure programme, and it is due to be spent over a decade, upgrading submarine maintenance facilities and modernising the base’s waterfront. Luke Pollard, who announced the wider £26 billion package in his role as a defence minister last month, called the investment “historic” and said it would deliver “a decade of game changing jobs and opportunities” for communities across Plymouth. “Labour governments, including this one, always back Devonport,” he added.

Fred Thomas described the visit as “a really productive visit, and an invaluable opportunity to showcase the work taking place here in our city”, pointing to both the infrastructure projects at the base and the wider defence economy building up around it. “As the Royal Navy adapts to new challenges and new technologies, it is more important than ever that Plymouth is at the heart of that future,” he said, “securing the investment, jobs and opportunities that come with it.”

Why South East Cornwall has a stake in it

Devonport sits on the Devon side of the Tamar, but a large share of the people who work there live on the Cornish bank. Anna Gelderd, whose South East Cornwall constituency faces the base across the river, said 23% of contractor Babcock’s workforce at the naval base live in her constituency, making the investment as much a South East Cornwall story as a Plymouth one.

“South East Cornwall plays a vital role in our national defence,” Anna said. “23% of Babcock’s workforce at HMNB Devonport live in South East Cornwall, so the record investment into the naval base is a brilliant step towards providing high-quality local jobs and boosting our economy. It was brilliant to have Wes down in the South West following this announcement. We also discussed how improving connectivity across the Tamar is crucial to driving our area forward and being able to reach our full potential.”

Babcock manages Devonport on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, running everything from submarine refits to waterfront services under contract.

The companies building the Navy’s uncrewed future

Beyond the building works, Wes Streeting also spent time with local firms working on what the Ministry of Defence calls a “hybrid Navy”, pairing crewed warships with networked uncrewed vessels above and below the water. The businesses he met were ACUA Ocean, Oshen, ZeroUSV, MSub and Marine AI, all based in and around Plymouth’s marine autonomy cluster at Turnchapel Wharf and beyond, and all developing uncrewed or autonomous vessels for defence and ocean monitoring work.

A new route into the industry for young people

To help the next generation of workers into that industry, City College Plymouth was named one of five national Defence Technical Excellence Colleges in April. Backed by £10 million of funding, it will expand training capacity across nuclear, naval maintenance, marine autonomy, cyber and advanced manufacturing, subjects that feed directly into the work going on at Devonport and among the autonomy firms nearby.

Writing on X after the visit, Wes Streeting said: “Defence runs in the blood in Plymouth. This city has a proud maritime history at the heart of our national security, and an equally exciting future. HMNB Devonport’s future is secure and bright as they push the frontiers of defence innovation to keep us all safe.”

The £7.1 billion is committed over ten years, which stretches the timeline for these jobs and opportunities well into the 2030s. Whether South East Cornwall sees its promised share of that, and whether the Tamar crossing Anna Gelderd raised with the Defence Secretary gets any easier in the meantime, is a story with a long way still to run.