British finance minister John Healey is preparing to throw his support behind companies investing in defense as part of a broader industrialization campaign intended to energize Britain’s anaemic economic growth.

Healey is expected to outline the approach Monday during his first speech as finance minister to the governing Labour Party’s annual conference. His remarks will seek to add substance to Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s promise to reindustrialize Britain.

Burnham became Britain’s seventh leader in a decade in July. His government is presenting industrial investment, including major defense projects, as a potential route toward creating jobs, reducing unemployment and lowering the welfare bill.

Healey previously served as defense minister under former Prime Minister Keir Starmer. He resigned from that position because he believed the government’s spending on defense was inadequate.

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The finance minister will describe what he calls a “new age of industrialization” in which British companies deliver defense projects worth billions of pounds. One proposal calls for three new floating docks for submarines in Clyde in Scotland.

“By backing British shipyards, we are not only boosting national security but also securing resilience in the industries that will drive growth today while building the capabilities the country needs for the future,” Healey said in a statement.

The proposed floating docks provide a concrete example of the government’s effort to connect defense investment with industrial growth. Healey’s message places British shipyards and domestic companies at the center of that effort.

Burnham has also pledged to meet a NATO target that would increase Britain’s core defense budget to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2035. That commitment adds a significant spending goal to the government’s industrial ambitions.

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Healey’s conference speech is expected to signal that Burnham’s government views investment in defense and other sectors as a path toward stronger growth. The government also hopes jobs created through those investments can help reduce unemployment and welfare spending.

The Labour conference is intended to energize party members and lawmakers with a message of hope. At the same time, the government must navigate competing financial pressures while attempting to deliver on its economic and defense promises.

Burnham has promised to give the British public breathing space from pressures tied to the cost of living. Delivering that relief, however, carries a financial cost at a moment when government finances are already tight.

Conflict in the Middle East is affecting energy costs, adding another strain before Healey presents his first budget on Oct. 28. Those conditions leave the new finance minister with little room to maneuver as he prepares his fiscal plans.

Defense also presents a substantial funding challenge for the government. Britain must fill a £4.7 billion ($6.2 billion) gap in its Defence Investment Plan, which serves as a blueprint for military investment.

Some military experts say that plan does not go far enough to fulfill Britain’s promise to raise defense spending. The funding gap therefore sits alongside Burnham’s pledge to bring the core defense budget to 3.5% of gross domestic product by 2035.

Britain’s new defense minister, Wes Streeting, has said defense will help drive the country’s reindustrialization campaign. “Defense spending should make Britain stronger in every sense,” Streeting said. “That means backing British by buying British wherever our industry can deliver.”

The government’s emerging pitch links national security, domestic production and employment under one industrial strategy. Healey’s speech will place defense firms and shipyards squarely within Labour’s attempt to revive growth despite limited financial flexibility and major spending demands.

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