![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Faslane-aerial-pic-1.jpg\"\/)
Faslane on the Gareloch. Picture: Crown copyright.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFaslane on the Gareloch. Picture: Crown copyright.<\/p>\n
A \u00a31.9bn project to build new docks at Faslane should see contracts given to Scottish firms, union leaders have warned.<\/p>\n
Programme Euston will see floating harbours installed on the Gareloch to accommodate nuclear-powered submarines.<\/p>\n
And this week the GMB union said workers and communities would be \u2018betrayed\u2019 by the Ministry of Defence if they were built anywhere but Scotland.<\/p>\n
The union, one of the biggest in UK engineering and manufacturing, urged the UK Government to commit to awarding the \u2018once in a generation\u2019 contracts directly to engineering yards in Scotland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Dreadnought_AboveWater-.jpg\"\/)
A visualisation of the new Dreadnought-class submarines, which will be armed with nuclear missiles<\/p>\n
She has written to defence secretary John Healey to warn the \u2018nonsensical and self-harming mistakes\u2019 that sent recent MoD contracts around the world cannot be repeated.<\/p>\n
Gilmour said: \u201cThese Faslane contracts could not be more crucial to our national security or have more potential to secure our industrial capability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to imagine another country in the world being so willing to send such work abroad.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThis is a once in a generation opportunity to create and protect hundreds of skilled jobs and apprenticeships.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is beyond time our Ministry of Defence started defending our workers and their communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
She spoke out amid mounting concern that Programme Euston was going out to international tender.<\/p>\n
The docks, expected to be operational in the first half of the 2030s, will support maintenance and repair work for Britain\u2019s nuclear fleet.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cAllowing this work to be offshored will be a betrayal of our workers and their communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years procurement decisions have been driven by the narrowest possible definition of cost while ignoring the enormous social value of sustaining skilled industrial employment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\u201cWhen these contracts leave the UK, the taxpayer loses twice \u2014 first through the loss of jobs, wages and economic activity, and again through the long-term erosion of strategic industrial capability.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
An MOD spokesperson said: \u201cProgramme Euston\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cInfrastructure work within the Clyde naval base must be done with British companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinal details of the benefits to Scotland and UK business will be announced in due course.<\/p>\n
\u201cScotland is a powerhouse of innovation, with a proud military history and expertise in defence, supporting 11,800 industry jobs and receiving \u00a32.1bn in annual UK Government spending.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faslane on the Gareloch. Picture: Crown copyright. A \u00a31.9bn project to build new docks at Faslane should see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":977200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,46314,272107,84832,45764,272108,68205,272109,4884,203314,178318,272110,11653,9466,272111,272112,8593,712,16,15],"class_list":["post-977199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-britain","tag-contracts","tag-dock","tag-docks","tag-euston","tag-faslane","tag-floating","tag-gareloch","tag-great-britain","tag-harbour","tag-mod","tag-pontoon","tag-premium","tag-programme","tag-programme-esuton","tag-project-euston","tag-royal-navy","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116616836498908250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/977200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}