Government announces Defence Growth Deal for South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is one of five regions to get a share of £50m from the Government for a new Defence Growth Deal, which it says will boost manufacturing and strengthen national security.
The targeted funding was announced by Defence Minister Luke Pollard yesterday at the University of Sheffield, who said it would reinforce the supply chains defence companies need to equip our Armed Forces.
South Yorkshire was the only other English area, alongside Plymouth to receive the funding, and Mr Pollard said that was down to the expertise already existing in the region.
He told The Yorkshire Post: “We already see an enormously successful cluster of advanced manufacturing businesses that directly support defence’s output.
“That could be the work of Sheffield Forgemasters producing the new weldings for the new Dreadnought-class submarines being built in Barrow.
“It could be the new artillery gun barrels for our mobile artillery units, or it could be the work BAE Systems do at their artillery plant.
“We want to see further investment in capabilities, but more importantly further investment in people.
“We know that with an increasing defence budget, and more of that money being directed in British companies, we will need more workers in the defence industry.”
It comes as RNN Group college in Rotherham is set to get £10m to boost skills in defence industries as part of the Government’s technical excellence college programme.
This could youngsters trained to become cyber security experts or even in drone technology.