Portsmouth Naval Base Gets £100m Boost

Portsmouth Naval Base is to get a £100m investment to improve facilities so that two new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers can dock there.

The vessels are currently being built at shipyards around the country.

The funds are part of a government strategy to make the Royal Navy the "most modern in the world" and with the aim of building a new warship every two years.

The investment was announced by Chancellor George Osborne on a visit to the base.

He said Type 26 global combat ships - expected to be ordered later this year - would also be based both in Portsmouth and in Plymouth.

"Ensuring a better and more secure future for Britain means equipping our Royal Navy for the challenges of the 21st Century," Mr Osborne said.

"It is only because we have a long-term economic plan that we are able to invest in our national security. Our ambition is to deliver the most modern navy in the world which this Government believes is a national necessity.

"It will maintain and create jobs and deliver a more secure future for Britain."

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas said: "The commitment to a new national shipbuilding strategy... is also a powerful statement that our nation's global interests will be protected by a credible, world class navy - equipped with fast-jet aircraft carriers, submarines, destroyers and frigates which will be the best and most modern in the world."

The Chancellor also announced £3m for various causes connected with the Royal Navy, saying funding would come from fines paid by banks connected with transgressions over Libor, an international lending benchmark that was artificially manipulated.

"It is fitting that the money paid in fines by people who demonstrated the poorest values in our society is used to support those who demonstrate the very best," said Mr Osborne.

The dockyard was badly hit last year when defence giant BAE Systems moved most of its shipbuilding capacity to Scotland and cut its Portsmouth workforce by 940 to just 260, ending an 800-year-old tradition of shipbuilding there.