Space Industry Roundtable with Maria Eagle

I recently had the privilege of hosting a Defence-Space Industry Roundtable in Parliament, bringing together leaders from across government and industry to address the future of the UK’s space sector with Maria Eagle MP, Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry.

Space is now central to our national security, economic growth, and industrial strategy. With the global space sector projected to exceed $1.8 trillion by 2035, the UK must act decisively to secure its leadership.

Key themes from our discussion included:

◾ The need for cross-government coordination to overcome fragmentation in space policy and delivery.

◾ Strengthening national resilience and sovereign capability through investment in UK space programmes and robust, innovative supply chains.

◾ Supporting SMEs and accelerating procurement to unlock new technologies and high-value jobs.

◾ Investing in skills and R&D to create a sustainable pipeline of talent for the future.

◾ Leveraging dual-use technologies and export opportunities to drive economic growth and reinforce the UK’s global standing.

We agreed that the upcoming Strategic Defence Review and Defence Industrial Strategy are critical opportunities. I was pleased to see Space security in the recently unveiled UK-EU Security and Defence Partnership; more must be done to ensure access to pan-European constellations and streamline European Space Agency - ESA / EU contract access for UK companies.

Thank you to all the experts, MPs and business who joined the roundtable, including: Emily Darlington MP, Oriel Petry from Airbus, Professor Anu Ojha from the UK Space Agency, Dr Louise Butt from Space South Central , Sean Sutcliffe from Oxford Space Systems, Joshua Western & Lewis D'Ambra from Space Forge, Rebecca Huffee from the National Composites Centre, Stephanie Ayres from UKspace & Cllr Thomas Plater from Stevenage.