Recommendation 14

The Department is a key customer for the defence industry, and it currently spends 85% of its budget in the UK, a proportion that it hopes to maintain or expand as defence spending increases. It said that this amount of expenditure means it can be an important element of the UK’s wider industrial strategy by spending as much as it can in the UK economy. If done right, the Department thinks it could provide a huge stimulus for growth into the UK economy, including investment in infrastructure and skilled jobs throughout the country.30