The Royal Navy is not leaving Devonport Dockyard.
The recent written ministerial statement on the Maritime Change Programme confirms that there are no plans to change the base porting arrangements for any frigates currently based at Devonport in the forseeable future. In the longer term I will be campaigning vigorously for Devonport to be considered as base port for elements of the Future Surface Combatant programme.
Furthermore the statement outlines the Government’s intention for Devonport to become the primary location for deep maintenance and a centre of excellence for amphibious warfare. 1 Assault Group Royal Marines and 539 Assault Squadron, together with their associated landing craft, are set to be relocated from their current bases in Poole and Turnchapel into the naval base.
Giving the bulk of the deep maintenance on both submarines and ships to Plymouth is good news and it is what we have been pressing for over recent months. This will bring more work to the dockyard because these refits are complex and time consuming. This will also help us to retain a good skills base.
It is also good news that Plymouth will become a centre of excellence for amphibious warfare. The kind of threats we currently face – and are likely to face in the future – call for flexible forces. It is precisely these kind of versatile expeditionary assets that will lie at the heart of what the Navy and the Marines do and I am delighted Devonport will have an integral role in supporting them.
This is a significant milestone. The City can now have a clear picture of what its very important defence sector, including the naval and dockyard activity but the wider defence and security sector, will look like in the coming decade. I will be calling on the City Development Company to ensure that we have a benchmark of where this now puts us – and a forward strategy for making the very most of this important part of our City’s economy.
All too often Plymouth talks itself down and fails to trumpet it many assets and successes. In the case of the dockyard, this air of negativity is almost as damaging as the uncertainty itself. Defence related businesses and companies will not want to invest in the City if locally we have unnecessarily written off our defence sector.
Alison Seabeck and I have written to the Armed Forces Minister to seek further information - and to put the case for Plymouth to be home to the next generation of Future Surface Combatant. You can read the letter here:

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