Jaguar and Land Rover get £340 million boost
07 April 2009
Jaguar Land Rover has secured £340 million of investment to develop more environmentally-friendly cars.
The money is being provided by the European Investment Bank and will be a huge boost to the company which has factories in the Midlands and on Merseyside.
Nissan also received £370 million from the EIB which will be invested at its plants in the UK (Sunderland) and Spain.
The boost comes as fresh evidence of the poor state of the British car industry emerged.
Earlier today a 45 per cent fall in car manufacturing was revealed over the last three months to February compared year-on-year.
Yesterday the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders found new car sales for March had fallen 30.5 per cent year on year.
Land Rover has already received £27 million from the British government to create a car based on the LRX Concept shown at last year’s Detroit Motor Show.
Land Rover managing director Phil Popman described the new car as: “The smallest, lightest and most efficient Range Rover we've ever built.
"The compact size, lighter weight and sustainability-focused technologies of the LRX Concept showed how Land Rover is planning to respond to the needs of a changing world.”
Around 800,000 people are employed in the British car industry including 15,000 at Jaguar Land Rover’s sites, plus 4,900 at Nissan Sunderland.
Unite union joint general secretary Tony Woodley urged the government to do more to help other car manufacturers.
He said: “The government has demonstrated it recognises the strategic importance of this industry to our country.
"But with this money earmarked for longer term environmental projects, we need urgent action to help all UK-based car manufacturers in the here and now.
"We need government measures to address these concerns, to protect jobs and stimulate demand. That means a subsidy programme to keep people at work and off the dole, fixing the broken finance system so that it is easier to buy a car and putting in place a scrappage scheme to encourage people to purchase a car at a time when confidence is at an all time low."
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