diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 13dd4141a6b..f701da2733e 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ ext {
     concurrentlinkedhashmapVersion = "1.4"
     cglibVersion = "2.2.2"
     objenesisVersion = "1.4"
+    tomcatVersion = "7.0.55"
 }
 
 version = grailsVersion
diff --git a/grails-plugin-datasource/build.gradle b/grails-plugin-datasource/build.gradle
index 90e9871038c..2da0e7c6ea2 100644
--- a/grails-plugin-datasource/build.gradle
+++ b/grails-plugin-datasource/build.gradle
@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-def tomcatVersion = '7.0.53'
 dependencies {
     compile("org.springframework:spring-jdbc:${springVersion}") {
         exclude group: 'commons-logging', module:'commons-logging'
diff --git a/grails-web-boot/build.gradle b/grails-web-boot/build.gradle
index 93e69d62e3c..6d9178bd9bc 100644
--- a/grails-web-boot/build.gradle
+++ b/grails-web-boot/build.gradle
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@ dependencies {
 
     testCompile project(":grails-plugin-controllers")
 
-    testRuntime "org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:7.0.53"
-    testRuntime "org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-logging-juli:7.0.53"
+    testRuntime "org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:$tomcatVersion"
+    testRuntime "org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-logging-juli:$tomcatVersion"
     testRuntime project(":grails-plugin-i18n")
     testRuntime project(":grails-plugin-url-mappings")
 }
\ No newline at end of file