BritishAmerican Business (BAB) welcomes the recent announcement of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP), which provides greater clarity on the UK’s defence priorities and is a positive step for businesses making long-term investment decisions.

BAB and our transatlantic defence community have consistently highlighted that the UK must act now to secure long-term industry investment or risk losing it to countries that provide clearer procurement and investment commitments. The delay to the DIP heightened this uncertainty for industry partners considering future investment in the UK.

Now that the DIP has been announced, the focus should be on securing long-term industry investment that will deliver economic and defence benefits for decades to come, including from US-headquartered companies and their longstanding UK-registered subsidiaries, which make a significant contribution to the UK’s defence industrial base.

The DIP is also an important step towards the UK making good on its pledge to spend five per cent of GDP on defence and wider security by 2035. Given the urgency of the current security environment, spending should not be back-loaded, and a clear outline of the sequencing of investment over this Parliament and the next would help give industry the confidence to invest.

Looking ahead to next year’s Spending Review, it will be important for the government to continue engaging with industry on future defence spending to ensure the UK remains competitive with its European NATO allies in attracting investment and strengthening defence capability.

BAB looks forward to working with the Ministry of Defence and industry to support the successful implementation of the DIP.