Labour locks in £6bn Faslane contract for UK shipyards, with Scottish yards seen as frontrunners

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026.

Chancellor John Healey has committed £6bn in contracts to British shipyards to build floating dry docks for the Royal Navy's nuclear submarine fleet at HM Naval Base Clyde, pledging the work will stay in the UK. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting told the Labour conference in Liverpool that the deal is "one of the biggest defence procurement decisions in a generation." Navantia UK, which owns yards in Fife and Belfast, is seen as the frontrunner for the work. Rolls-Royce is also to invest £300m across plants in Derby, Bristol, Glasgow and Rotherham as part of the same announcement.

The Faslane contract is part of a wider £15bn upgrade of the Clyde base planned over the coming decade.

Healey also pledged £115m to build a new marine research vessel in the UK, replacing the Cefas Endeavour constructed more than 20 years ago.