UK unveils £298 billion defence plan after year-long delay

The government unveiled a £298 billion Defence Investment Plan on 30 June 2026 after a year-long delay, promising a 27% real-terms rise in defence spending between 2023/24 and 2029/30. The package includes an extra £15 billion for defence, more than £5 billion for drones and autonomous systems over the next four years, and a record £9 billion commitment to renew military housing over the next decade.

The official case for the plan is blunt about the condition of the system it is meant to fix. Ministers said 47 of 49 major defence projects were delayed or over budget, and that many had been announced without enough funding or with no funding at all. That admission has turned the plan into a test of credibility as much as a spending statement: whether it closes genuine capability gaps, or simply rebrands old promises with a larger headline number.

The housing pledge is one of the plan’s most concrete promises. The government says it will upgrade, renew or rebuild nine in ten of 40,000 military homes over the next decade, while the new drone and autonomous systems budget is intended to drive the largest ever drone investment for the armed forces. Ministers also say the Defence Investment Plan will create nearly 60,000 extra direct and indirect UK industry jobs by the end of the decade.

Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, defended the package and rejected the claim that it leaves a funding hole, saying spending reviews are the point at which resources are allocated. The political argument has widened beyond defence policy into Labour’s leadership succession fight, with Andy Burnham pressing for a larger defence commitment and Keir Starmer’s team pushing the package through ahead of the NATO summit.

The plan sits inside a broader reordering of defence policy that began with the Strategic Defence Review in June 2025 and the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 in September. Together with the separate £9 billion Defence Housing Strategy and the £5 billion technology push for autonomous systems, drones and lasers, the new plan ties procurement, industry and readiness into a single budget fight that will now be judged on delivery as much as declaration.