Faslane on the Gareloch. Picture: Crown copyright.
A £1.9bn project to build new docks at Faslane should see contracts given to Scottish firms, union leaders have warned.
Programme Euston will see floating harbours installed on the Gareloch to accommodate nuclear-powered submarines.
And this week the GMB union said workers and communities would be ‘betrayed’ by the Ministry of Defence if they were built anywhere but Scotland.
The union, one of the biggest in UK engineering and manufacturing, urged the UK Government to commit to awarding the ‘once in a generation’ contracts directly to engineering yards in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Ministers are under pressure to demonstrate how increased military spending can boost domestic manufacturing and Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, urged them to dispel speculation that Faslane contracts are being prepared for international tender.
A visualisation of the new Dreadnought-class submarines, which will be armed with nuclear missiles
She has written to defence secretary John Healey to warn the ‘nonsensical and self-harming mistakes’ that sent recent MoD contracts around the world cannot be repeated.
Gilmour said: “These Faslane contracts could not be more crucial to our national security or have more potential to secure our industrial capability.
“It is hard to imagine another country in the world being so willing to send such work abroad.
“This is a once in a generation opportunity to create and protect hundreds of skilled jobs and apprenticeships.
“It is beyond time our Ministry of Defence started defending our workers and their communities.”
She spoke out amid mounting concern that Programme Euston was going out to international tender.
The docks, expected to be operational in the first half of the 2030s, will support maintenance and repair work for Britain’s nuclear fleet.
She said: “Allowing this work to be offshored will be a betrayal of our workers and their communities.
“For years procurement decisions have been driven by the narrowest possible definition of cost while ignoring the enormous social value of sustaining skilled industrial employment,” she said.
“The value of apprenticeships, community regeneration, secure long-term employment and resilient local supply chains is rarely properly weighted against the apparent short-term savings of outsourcing work abroad.
“When these contracts leave the UK, the taxpayer loses twice — first through the loss of jobs, wages and economic activity, and again through the long-term erosion of strategic industrial capability.”
The Ministry of Defence has yet to confirm the procurement model for Programme Euston, but the union cites industry sources as saying that international competition remains under consideration.
An MOD spokesperson said: “Programme Euston’s multi-billion-pound investment in infrastructure at HMNB Clyde will create a significant pipeline of jobs for businesses in Western Scotland for decades to come.
“Infrastructure work within the Clyde naval base must be done with British companies.
“Final details of the benefits to Scotland and UK business will be announced in due course.
“Scotland is a powerhouse of innovation, with a proud military history and expertise in defence, supporting 11,800 industry jobs and receiving £2.1bn in annual UK Government spending.”