Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the Government will provide more than £30 million to support veterans and add £11 billion to the defence budget over the next five years. Mr Hunt is delivering his spring budget to MPs in the Commons this lunchtime.
As part of his budget, Mr Hunt says the Government will provide a more than £30 million package to increase the capacity of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, noting this will “support veterans with injuries returning from their service and increase the availability of veteran housing”.
Meanwhile, he also confirmed the Government will add £11 billion to the defence budget over the next five years. He said: "Today, following representations from our persuasive Defence Secretary, I confirm that we will add a total of £11bn to our defence budget over the next five years and it will be nearly 2.25% of GDP by 2025.
“We were the first large European country to commit to 2% of GDP for defence and will raise that to 2.5% as soon as fiscal and economic circumstances allow.”
