500 job losses at Jaguar Land Rover 'disappointing', says Government
The voluntary redundancy scheme will be solely focused on management within the business, and job cuts will not exceed the equivalent of 1.5 per cent of JLR's UK workforce. Advertisement - Article continues below
A spokesperson for the British luxury-car manufacturer said: 'JLR regularly offers eligible employees voluntary redundancy programmes. Through this limited UK VR programme for managers, JLR is aligning its leadership workforce for the business's current and future needs.'
Despite claims of this being routine workforce streamlining, it comes after JLR was forced to pause exports to the United States – the firm's biggest market – following President Trump's enforcement of 27.5 per cent blanket tariffs on all foreign-made cars.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has since secured a deal that brings this down to just 10 per cent for the first 100,000 UK cars exported to the US per year – something that was revealed when Starmer visited JLR's factory in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, in April.
JLR says it's 'grateful to the Government for delivering at speed the new UK-US trade deal, which gives us the confidence to invest £3.5billion per annum to realise our strategy, which is delivering'.
Downing Street, on the other hand, said that 'whilst this news is disappointing, [it's] taking real action to support jobs and investment in the long term'.
It's been a difficult first half of the year for the UK car industry, with job cuts at Ford and Nissan, as well as the closure of Vauxhall's iconic manufacturing plant in Luton, Beds. Lotus has also been accused of considering moving production from its facility in Hethel, Norfolk, over to the US, although the British sports car maker insisted that it is 'continuing normal operations, and there are no plans to close the factory'.
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