Millions of jobs could be created if the government dumped its nuclear weapons for good and spent the cash elsewhere, peace campaigners said yesterday.

As Britain braced itself for yet more cuts in today's Budget, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) set out ways in which the £100 billion spent on Trident missiles could be put to better use.

CND said the money could employ 150,000 nurses, build 1.5 million homes or 30,000 new primary schools.

The People Not Trident report states that the cost of replacing Trident missiles would also fully fund all hospital A&E services for 40 years, build 180 new hospitals, fit 15 million homes with solar panels or pay for four million students to go to university.

The report, written by economist Michael Burke, said: "Britain's economy has not yet recovered after the recession, with stable unemployment figures hiding the reality of those underemployed in part-time jobs and those on zero-hours contracts.

"Investing in flood defences, low-energy transport, energy efficiency and housing would not only provide jobs and increase tax revenue for the government, but would also contribute to a long-term economic recovery and a better future."

Mr Burke said spending so much money on replacing the nukes would be an "enormous waste."

He said: "An awful lot of pain and misery has been inflicted simply to reduce the deficit by £37bn over three years.

"Yet the government seems willing to commit £100bn of public money to the hugely wasteful Trident replacement programme."

The report states that spending the money in productive ways would have "a very substantial benefit to all our lives," while "spending £100bn on nuclear weapons of mass destruction is madness."

CND leader Kate Hudson said she hoped the report would help dispel concerns over job losses if Trident was scrapped.

Ministers claim that Trident supports about 7,000 jobs, but CND's report makes clear that spending the money elsewhere would put millions more people to work.

A decision is expected on the future of Trident after the next general election.

Green MP Caroline Lucas said the report was "compelling," particularly on the day Chancellor George Osborne will "no doubt be telling us we have to tighten our belts."

Spending money on people rather than Trident would make Britain "so much better," she said.

Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams welcomed CND's dossier, which he called "a damning reflection of a government's warped priorities when it miraculously manages to find huge sums of money for cold war weapons while thousands of families are forced to use food banks.

"The Chancellor has an opportunity to balance the books without forcing the most vulnerable in society to pay the price for the failure of the banks.

"We urge him to wake up to the fact that job security and adequate healthcare would make people feel far safer than nuclear subs ever could."