The Chancellor, John Healey, has confirmed in his Budget statement that he is closing a £4.7bn gap in the Defence Investment Plan. Earlier today this figure had only been reported.
He told the Commons he is "fully funding the Defence Investment Plan, including through capital reprioritisation across Whitehall." That means part of the money will come from capital budgets in other departments. He did not say which departments would lose out or by how much.
He added: "Today, I'm getting work underway to get there in a fiscally sustainable way. That will include looking hard at public spending, as I have done today, to fund the Defence Investment Plan."
Reuters reports that the path to defence spending of 3.5% of GDP by 2035 will be set out at next year's Spending Review, not in this Budget. So will a target date for reaching 3% by 2030.
According to MoneyWeek, Healey also announced a defence finance task force to work with the private sector. He announced joint work on defence investment and procurement with Finland, Poland and the Netherlands as well.