Affordability of the Defence Investment Plan

The Prime Minister announced in February 2025 that defence spending (which may include some spending by other government departments) would rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027-28. The 2.5% figure means that £6.4bn more will be spent in 2027-28 than if spending had remained at past levels (the UK spent 2.3% of GDP on defence in 2023.) Government’s ambition is for spending to rise to 3% of GDP in the next Parliament. In June 2025, the government’s Strategic Defence Review (SDR) announced that a new Defence Investment Plan, replacing the Equipment Plan, would lay out how the SDR’s vision would be delivered. In the most recent defence Equipment Plan, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) expected overall costs to exceed its own budget by £42.5bn over the ten years to 2033. Equipment costs made up £16.9bn of this. Spending at 2.5% of GDP in 2027-28 will represent £13.4bn more than was spent in 2024-25. In its June 2025 report on the future of the Equipment Plan, the PAC voiced its extreme disappointment th