Plymouth may only have been rebranded as “Britain’s ocean city” in recent years, but its role as a centre of UK defence can be traced back to the 16th century thanks to its strategic location on Devon’s south coast. Sir Francis Drake set sail from Plymouth on his circumnavigation of the globe and it was here the Pilgrims finally departed England for America on board the Mayflower.
In more recent decades, a dependence on the defence sector no longer seemed an asset, as spending cuts and the loss of dockyard jobs forced the city with a proud maritime history to square up to a new foe: economic uncertainty.
But Plymouth’s leaders now hope renewed government investment in the defence industry will increase local fortunes, creating thousands of new jobs and reinvigorating the city centre, as its undergoes its largest regeneration since it was rebuilt after the second world war.
“People think it’s all clotted cream and farming, but we do neither of those things,” says Labour councillor Tudor Evans, the leader of Plymouth city council. “But what we do do is exceptionally clever engineering and manufacturing.”
The government has pledged to invest £4.4bn over the next decade in Plymouth’s Devonport dockyard, the largest naval base in western Europe. As well as the Royal Navy’s site, about 300 companies in the maritime and defence supply chain are located in the city.
UK-headquartered Babcock oversees repairs, maintenance, refitting and defuelling of the country’s nuclear submarine fleet from the privatised part of the Devonport base, while Germany’s Helsing produces underwater drones at its recently opened facility in the city. France’s Thales operates a marine autonomy centre and already supplies the Royal Navy with uncrewed surface boats and flying drones.
The waters of Plymouth Sound have been turned into a test bed for the newest autonomous and maritime systems, with a laboratory fitted out with 5G and loudspeakers.
Investment in Devonport will create up to 25,000 new jobs at the dockyard and across the supply chain, according to council estimates, with the roles better paid than many available in the region, where official figures show average weekly wages trail those in the rest of England.
“It’s going to give Plymouth as a whole a pay rise,” says Evans, adding that 5,500 dockyard workers will be needed in the coming years just to replace those who are retiring. “The potential is huge.”
Even as the Middle East conflict continues and Russian vessels are tracked sailing close to UK waters by the Royal Navy, there has been wrangling in Westminster over the military budget.
However, the council is optimistic about the spending, and many locally see signs of progress in the local defence sector in Babcock’s announcement that it is moving 2,000 of its 7,500 employees at Devonport into the city centre, where it plans to turn a former House of Fraser department store into a training centre and offices.
Babcock speaks of its long-term commitment to Plymouth, given a 70-year pipeline of work, meaning some of the workers needed to maintain the UK’s submarine fleet either have not yet been born or are at primary school.
The council’s goal is to build homes for those future defence workers, to keep them in Plymouth, rather than seeing them take their salaries to other places at the end of the week, as happens at Barrow-in-Furness where the UK’s nuclear submarines are built.
“We do not want those wage packets disappearing up the A38 and the M5 when people finish work to go home for the weekend,” Evans says.
Local leaders believe the current regeneration programme will play a role in making Plymouth an appealing place to live, alongside the region’s natural beauty.
They plan to build 10,000 new homes in the city centre, including 144 rental flats and a skills hub for college students inside the 14-storey civic centre. Colourful billboards erected around the empty tower block inform local people that a “wave of investment” is “charting an exciting future” for the city.
Meanwhile, Homes England, the government agency that allocates public money for social housing, has bought four large sites in the city.
A regeneration is clearly needed. The leading postwar planner Patrick Abercrombie’s grid-based, modern concrete vision for Plymouth’s city centre with a large shopping complex and few homes has not aged well. In the intervening years, shops closed down and jobs moved out – including the council staff who vacated the civic centre in 2015 – often leaving the city deserted after 5pm.
Plymouth’s regeneration plans recently took a knock when it was not selected as one of the government’s new towns, designed to help ministers meet ambitious housebuilding targets. It lost out to projects including Tempsford in Bedfordshire and Leeds South Bank, which envisioned larger-scale developments on green- or brownfield sites.
Meanwhile, Crews Hill and Chase Park in north London was selected but a new Conservative-run administration at Enfield council has since withdrawn from the scheme.
Ministers have instead promised Plymouth a “bespoke solution package” to allow it to expand as a centre of naval technology and “to ensure that lack of good quality homes does not act as a barrier to growth”. This package is being worked on and more details are expected in the summer.
The plan links new homes to the city’s status as one of the government’s five defence growth areas. However, some local people are concerned that investment in the defence sector may not benefit all residents, and want new homes for families as well as defence workers.
Local leaders will have to ensure that “the product of economic growth can be shared more equitably”, says Dr Mike Sheaff, an associate lecturer in sociology at the University of Plymouth.
“Plymouth’s politicians face a challenge in demonstrating public money being put into the city centre will bring public benefit. Risks of this being seen as dominated by a commercial, political or military elite should not be ignored,” he adds.
On a bright spring day, groups of young people are playing volleyball and football, or relaxing on the grass in Plymouth Hoe, a park overlooking Plymouth Sound, from where Drake once set sail.
The city clearly has much to offer residents, from the natural beauty of the coast to culture with a theatre that hosts West End productions, and the museum and gallery the Box.
Yet the rising cost of living is a big concern for those worrying about soaring rents. The average monthly rent in Plymouth hit £985 in March, according to Office for National Statistics, a jump of about 30% on five years earlier.
“It is just about affordable here. I am single and can just afford a two-bedroom flat on my own,” says Lorna Logan, a senior teacher at a further education college, walking through the city centre after work with her friend Emmeline Kwaan. Logan has found Plymouth increasingly expensive after moving from London during the pandemic. “Rentals are going up by 6% a year,” she says.
Kwaan, a Plymouth native, extols the benefits of its “small city mentality”, saying: “You can live here without a car and go to the sea for a swim and there’s a theatre here.” However, she concedes there is “lots of work to be done” to make it more affordable.
Victoria Allen, the chief executive of the housing charity Path, says new housing is “hugely needed”.
“We desperately need more homes at all levels,” she adds. “We work with people at the sharp end of homelessness and also with a lot of people who can’t get access to the private sector at the moment because rents are so high. Increased housing is only going to reduce competition.”
While the decision not to select Plymouth for the new towns programme has been a “disappointment” for Terri Beer, a former lord mayor and independent councillor, the increase in defence spending is welcome.
“The world seems to stop at Bristol these days and they forget about us down in Plymouth, because we need money and investment here,” she says. “We are vulnerable in the UK, defence-wise, and it’s important that investment is made in defence and creates jobs for people, particularly here in Plymouth.”