MoD scraps £14bn defence training academy

An ambitious £14bn defence training academy in south Wales has been axed by the Ministry of Defence (MoD)

The planned Defence Technical College in St Athan would have consolidated the MoD’s training facilities in one location and created more than 2,000 jobs.

But it was scrapped as the government announced cuts to the defence budget earlier this week.

In a written statement to Parliament, defence secretary Dr Liam Fox said the Metrix consortium, which won the contract in 2007 to build and manage the college, had not been able to deliver “an affordable and value for money contract proposal”.

Dr Fox said: “Given the significance of this project and the opportunity to provide a world-class training facility, the Ministry of Defence has worked tirelessly to deliver this project.

“However, it is now clear that Metrix cannot deliver an affordable, commercially robust proposal within the prescribed period and it has therefore been necessary to terminate the DTR [defence training rationalisation project] procurement and Metrix’s appointment as preferred bidder.”

Dr Fox added that the MoD would still consider a future training base for St Athan. He said: “Technical training, collocated on as few sites as possible, remains in our view the best solution for our Armed Forces.

“St Athan was previously chosen as the best location on which to collocate that training for good reasons, and we still hope to base our future defence training solution there.”

Kofo Baptist