Motor industry leaders met with business secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday for crisis talks in London as the drive to free up government money to bolster beleaguered car makers continued.
The latest crisis talks come days after Jaguar Land Rover announced plans to lay off 850 more agency workers from its facilities in the West Midlands before the end of the year. The move halves the firm’s roster of agency staff.
“Severe trading conditions mean we have to take the unfortunate decision to release agency workers,” said Andrew Roberts, director of communications for Land Rover.
The British car maker has already encouraged 600 of its full-time staff to accept voluntary redundancy as sales slump.
UK chief executives from General Motors, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Nissan, Honda, Toyota and JLR among others were all present at the talks this afternoon.
Paul Everitt, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said the point of the hour-long crisis meeting was to tell the government: “Cash is needed now.”
Lord Mandelson had suggested that the UK motor industry should turn to the European Investment Bank for funding. Obtaining money from Europe could take months, and Everitt insisted, “Some companies do not have that long.”
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Re: Car bosses meet Mandelson
I think you are missing the point - these are British jobs. Where the shareholders/owners live is of almost no relevance to the UK Government and its thinking. Their concerns will be almost entirely based on whether it is cheaper to bail out the car companies than pay the social security bill from the inevitable redundancies if they don't, and how they could possibly replace any jobs that are lost, which is going to be tricky in the current climate.
Re: Car bosses meet Mandelson
As said before, these companies are not UK companies, these are overseas firms that have come to the UK and built facilities, they have benefited from the UK economic environment and lets not forget the UK pays a high price (or certainly has done) for the cars by comparison to other countries.
I do not believe it is right to fund overseas firms in the UK, if they were UK firm then that is a different story, but as has been said, that would be applied as a national thing for all companies; the auto sector has enjoyed many fantastic years of boom and that shoudl have been used to develop new cars, especially smaller more efificent cars.
The UK should not give any moeny to overseas car companies, they are overseas firms not UK firms; in the case of Toyota, they should ask the Japanese gov for assistance, in the case of Nissan, the same, in teh case of JLR (TATA) the indian gov should be consulted; it seems they are asking that they go to the EU and ask for a loan, personally I think the same applies, they are not EU firms thus I do not see why they should, the UK gov asked the EU for money for UK small firms and it got it, which is fantastic! (well done the gov) but for overseas firms specifically, they have enjoyed the market, they are in charge of the products they sell and develop and the prices they charge, they are also overseas firms and should ask their own govs for money not the UK gov; for one the UK gov. has given all car firms a huge boost with the 2.5% off VAT i.e. an extra 2.5% consumers can have off a new car and that helps everyone; for overseas firms no way, if they are EU firms they can ask the EU for cash (as the EU firms are doing), but for overseas firms such as Toyota, Nissan, JLR (TATA) etc then no I do not think they should get anything, they are not UK or EU firms.
Re: Car bosses meet Mandelson
This isn't just car industry related. The government should be looking at a healthy slug of tax relief for all businesses in the UK during these trying economic times.
What never ceases to amaze me is the short sightedness of the politicians who don't take in to consideration the supplying industries. It isn't just the likes of the component manufacturers who suffer, you also have the companies that provide things like janitorial supplies and other consumables to the large plants who are also suffering.
This knock on effect has a much more devastating impact on the UK economy and for some reason, this tends to be forgotten!