NEARLY 4,000 jobs in the local economy would be lost if Portsmouth’s shipbuilding operations were to close.
There are around 1,300 workers in BAE’s shipbuilding division in Portsmouth.
But a report commissioned earlier this year by local council and business leaders estimated a huge knock-on effect on the area.
The report, by the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire, said the naval base overall generates £1.68bn annually for the local economy and supports nearly 20,000 jobs across south Hampshire, with 11,900 of those jobs in the base itself.
It is estimated around 77 per cent of those people live in the area.
Despite the fears over the future 
of shipbuilding in Portsmouth, BAE Systems is in the middle of a busy period of work. The city’s shipbuilders constructed the bows of all six of the Royal Navy’s new Type 45 destroyers and large sections of the navy’s new aircraft carriers have also been built in the city.
And yet to come is another project to build a new fleet of Type 26 frigates for the navy.
There have been calls for the frigates to be both based and built in 
Portsmouth.
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