Britain's rusting ghost fleet of nuclear submarines is costing taxpayers £30million a year to store, MPs reveal today.
The 20 retired Royal Navy boats waiting to be dismantled include HMS Dreadnought, which was decommissioned in 1980 and has languished in port waiting to be scrapped for more than double the 17 years it spent in service.
Costs for the programme have soared, with a £100million rise in the bill for a de-fuelling facility, which is 11 years overdue, a study says.
The dismantling project is £800million over budget and 15 years late, the report adds.
A Whitehall spending watchdog today blasts the “unacceptable and unnecessary” delay in disposing of the vessels – and warns officials will soon run out of space to house decommissioned boats, with more due to be retired.
The Public Accounts Committee says in a report: “The project has moved at a glacial pace and the 15-year delay has led to extortionate storage and maintenance costs which are now costing the taxpayer £30million per year.
“The department (MoD) is also looking increasingly likely to find itself without any further storage space by the mid-2020s.
“The department is rapidly approaching crisis point and simply cannot afford any further delays, particularly as much of the money currently being spent on the project is not going directly towards either de-fuelling or dismantling.”
The scathing report comes two-and-a-half years after the Mirror revealed the huge delays in dismantling the boats.
The Navy began retiring 20 submarines in 1980 - but “the Ministry of Defence’s progress in disposing of these submarines has been a serious disappointment”, say MPs.
Even a plan to finish scrapping the first submarine, HMS Swiftsure, by 2023, “will not be met and will likely be completed three years after the target date”, the 23-page study warns.
The report recommends: “To avoid running out of space and to meet its commitments, the department must achieve the milestones it has set itself over the next ten years, including by having commercial arrangements agreed for de-fuelling by the end of 2019.
“It should report to us on progress with both the de-fuelling and dismantling projects by March 31, 2020.”
Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier said: “In an attempt to save money in the short term by delaying the de-fuelling and dismantling of retired nuclear submarines, the MoD is now spending £30 million a year of taxpayers’ money on storage and maintenance.
“The MoD has spent £500million since 1980 on such storage and maintenance.
“This is simply unacceptable.
“Whilst some progress has been made recently with submarine disposals, the MoD cannot afford to fall any further behind.
“The Pubic Accounts Committee has set out a series of milestones for the MoD to ensure that it keeps on track to establish submarine disposal as a routine part of its business.”
