Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich plant to move to three-day week

Staff at Jaguar Land Rover’s Castle Bromwich plant have been told they will be working a three-day week until Christmas as it deals with a drop in demand for diesel models and the potential impact of Brexit.

Local Labour MP Jack Dromey tweeted: “The historic Castle Bromwich @Jaguar plant will now go onto a 3-day week until Xmas, a combination of #Brexit chaos and the mishandling by Ministers of the transition from diesel. #Brexit now threatens the jewel in the crown of #British manufacturing excellence.”

A statement from Jaguar Land Rover said: “As is standard business practice, Jaguar Land Rover regularly reviews its production schedules to ensure market demand is balanced globally.

“In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some temporary adjustments to our production schedules at Castle Bromwich.

“We are however continuing to over-proportionally invest in new products and technologies and are committed to our UK plants in which we have invested more than £4 billion since 2010 to future proof manufacturing technologies to deliver new models.”

The news comes just days after the chief executive of JLR warned that “10,000s of people are at risk” if Brexit causes disruption to its UK manufacturing operations.

Dr Ralf Speth, who has led JLR for eight years, reiterated his warning that a hard Brexit will cost the manufacturer £1.2bn.

Speaking at the Zero Emission Vehicle Summit in Birmingham, Dr Speth said: “I can see we will also produce electric vehicles in the UK – if the conditions are right, if we get good productivity, if we have the right environment to invest again in the UK.”

JLR uses around 25m parts to produces 3,000 vehicles a day in the UK, using its just-in-time process. Any disruption which caused production to stop would cost the company £60m a day.

“If one part is not there at the right time in the right position next to the assembly line, we are facing a challenge and that would mean we have to stop the production,” he said.

Speth said JLR needs “free, open, frictionless trade for goods and for people” and issued a stark warning of the potential cost of not being able to do that.

Speth’s comments drew criticism from Tory Brexiteer Sir Bernard Jenkin, who described them as “made up”.

Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said: “This is the continuing effect of the chaotic mismanagement of the Brexit negotiations by the government which has created uncertainty across the UK’s automotive industry and the manufacturing sector generally.

“It is also the result of the mishandling of how the UK makes a just transition from diesel and combustion engines to electric vehicles. Both issues have damaged the ‘jewel in the crown’ of UK manufacturing – our automotive industry.”

Burke added that Jenkins’ comments were “highly irresponsible and misinformed”.

He said: “The government’s failure to grasp the needs of the automotive industry were further highlighted when prime minister Theresa May recently unveiled a £106 million funding package for the research and development of zero-emission vehicles. This, frankly, is peanuts.”

Unite senior convenor at JLR Castle Bromwich Mick Livingstone said: “Rather than Tory MPs, who have no idea what they are talking about sniping from the sidelines, they need to wake up and recognise the shambles they have created and the damage they are doing to the UK auto industry.”

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