Jaguar to close Midlands plant

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will close one of its two West Midlands plants and create 800 new jobs at its Liverpool plant to develop a new fuel-efficient SUV.

David Smith, chief executive of JLR, confirmed the new business plan, saying it was a response to the impact the recession has had on business.

By the middle of the next decade, JLR will merge operations of its plants at Castle Bromwich, which is staffed by 2,000 employees, and Solihull, which has 4,000 employees. The company will decide which plant to close next year.

The plan does not include compulsory redundancies and JLR claims new jobs will be created at its Halewood plant in Merseyside for the production version of its LRX Concept, which will be the smallest and most fuel-efficient Range Rover available from Land Rover.

Despite these promises, the announcement has ignited fury from Unite. The union’s national secretary for the automotive sector, Dave Osborne, said JLR has backed out of an agreement Unite made with the carmaker earlier this year to support the company through the tough economic period.