UK launches defence office targeting £7.5bn in SME contracts – up 50%

The Defence Office for Small Business Growth has been established by the MoD (Andrew Matthews/PA) Andrew Matthews

The UK Government has launched a new team to help small and medium-sized businesses win more defence contracts. The Defence Office for Small Business Growth (OfSBG) aims to increase Ministry of Defence spending with SMEs by 50% – from £5 billion a year to £7.5 billion by 2028. The initiative comes as Britain faces what officials call a "new era of threat," making supply chain resilience critical.

Minister for defence readiness and industry Luke Pollard announced the launch on Tuesday. The OfSBG will initially support 30 SMEs across sectors ranging from aeronautical engineering to cyber, covering the whole UK from England to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The office will feature a public-facing web portal and contact centre to simplify procurement processes and provide advice to businesses.

Mission to strengthen defence

Pollard outlined the government's vision: «We're establishing the Defence Office for Small Business Growth as part of our mission to increase the amount of spend that the Ministry of Defence makes with small businesses across the country. We currently spend about £5 billion a year, and we want to increase that by 50% to £7.5 billion by 2028, now that's a huge increase that will create lots of jobs, lots of growth, and make Britain stronger.»

The minister emphasized the need for faster procurement: «To do that, we want to make it easier for small businesses to be able to interact with defence, so we can procure faster and quicker, and they can bring their products to market even faster as well. So it's the start of a process about making defence more small business friendly, creating good jobs and growth, and making sure that defence is an engine for growth in every part of our country.»

Security and supply chain resilience

Pollard stressed the initiative's strategic importance: «We know we live in a new era of threat, and we can see the dangers on our TV screens every single day, so bringing more resilience to our industrial supply chain is so important. An army, a military, is only as strong as the industry that sits behind it, and as a government, we want to direct more of our increasing defence budget at British companies, both large and small.»

The OfSBG aims to reverse a decline in MOD spending on SMEs by simplifying processes and encouraging private sector investment. Small and medium-sized firms are described by Pollard as the «backbone of UK defence.»

Impact on Scotland

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander highlighted the benefits for Scotland: «The creation of the Defence Office for Small Business Growth is great news for Scottish businesses, workers and the economy as it will help boost opportunities and access to investment, supported by our pledge to increase spending with SMEs by £2.5 billion by May 2028.»

The Ministry of Defence currently spends more than £2 billion a year in Scotland, supporting nearly 12,000 industry jobs. Alexander added: «Now with our historic uplift in spending to protect our own and European security and this new support for small and medium enterprises, we will further transform the sector.»

On Monday, Pollard visited the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland in Renfrewshire and Viper::Blast in Aberdour, Fife, a company specializing in simulation technology.

Note: This article was created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).