8. What steps he is taking to help ensure that the defence sector supports economic growth.

10. What steps he is taking to help ensure that the defence sector supports economic growth.

Defence is an engine for growth. The defence industrial strategy, which we published in September, sets out how we will reform procurement, cut contracting times, spend more of our rising defence budget with British companies, invest in frontier technologies and skills, crowd in private capital and support regional development.

I draw attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in respect of the GMB, a defence manufacturing trade union. Defence is an engine for growth, but skill shortages remain. What steps are being taken to increase the number of high-quality apprentices? If I may, Mr Speaker, can I also ask the Minister to join me in congratulating my constituent Andy De Comyn, whose design has just been chosen for the proposed national memorial to all members of the parliamentary community who have fallen in conflict?

I join my hon. Friend in thanking his constituent for his creativity and work. Defence is one of the largest apprenticeship employers in the country, with over 24,000 apprentices. The Navy is No. 2 and the RAF is No. 4, and I am proud that the Army has been named the No. 1 apprenticeship employer. We are doing even more than that with £182 million going into skills, and we are working with our trade union colleagues—from both the GMB, of which I am proud to be a member, and Unite—alongside industries big and small, as part of the Defence Industrial Joint Council, so we can motor our economic development and create more jobs in defence.

How can the defence sector make better use of underutilised MOD land and assets to contribute to innovative models of business such as the community energy projects that, alongside initiatives such as the South Yorkshire growth deal, can contribute to local SMEs and energy security?

As a very proud Labour and Co-operative MP, I know just how important it is to use community energy to create good renewable energy and cut energy bills. I would be very happy to speak to my hon. Friend about that. We are looking at the 1% of Britain that we own as a Department to see how we can not only deliver defence outputs and build more houses—with 100,000 houses identified in the defence housing strategy—but support environmental output and greater industrial opportunities for the private sector. I am very happy to meet her to discuss that further.

The Minister rightly promotes our world-class maritime sector in the south-west, where considerable private investment is being made, including a new resilience factory opening in my constituency next week. Such innovative young companies live or die on the pace of Government contracting, but we continue to wait for the latest defence investment plan. How will the Minister reassure the new tech companies in my constituency that the pace of their private investments is matched by the urgency of MOD contracting to ensure that economic growth through defence becomes a reality?

I thank my constituency neighbour for raising issues involving the south-west. I am actually opening that factory in the hon. Member’s constituency next week, and I look forward to seeing her there to make the case further for it. The defence investment plan, which will be published later this year, will set out what we are spending our money on. Let us be very clear: we are delivering the strategic defence review, and we are piling more energy and more of the money that we have been allocated from the Treasury into British businesses. I want to see more SMEs benefit from that, and in that respect we are delivering the defence industrial strategy at pace, but I am very happy to discuss that further with her.

I thank the hon. Lady for raising the opportunities in the south-west. There is a huge skilled workforce in the south-west region and a huge amount of economic activity already present, but we want there to be even more. That is why we are working with local government, and with regional government where it exists, across the south-west, as well as our colleagues in the private sector, to look at how we can boost skills and direct more of the rising defence budget at British companies in the south-west and in every other region and nation of the country, so we can deliver for defence and create more jobs.