JAGUAR Land Rover last night said it was “encouraged” by a £2.3bn government package designed to rescue the battered UK car industry and help safeguard thousands of Merseyside jobs.

But the announcement, unveiled by Business Minister Lord Mandelson, came under fire for failing to include cheap loans to tempt nervous motorists back into showrooms. MPs of all parties expressed disappointment after an expected announcement of lending support – to allow car finance houses to offer cut-price deals to potential buyers – failed to materialise.

Instead, the package will guarantee loans to the car giants and large suppliers designed to “make Britain a world leader in low carbon vehicles”.

While encouraged by the help, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) quickly added: “The specific nature of the challenge we face is that credit has dried up at the same time as demand evaporated.

“It is absolutely critical, for the future competitiveness of this country, that we have a strong and highly-skilled engineering and manufacturing workforce in place to drive green technology innovation.”

The Daily Post is campaigning for JLR – which employs more than 2,000 people at its Halewood plant – to itself be given a government commercial loan or loan guarantee of up to £1bn, to enable it to ride out the slump.

JLR’s message was quickly echoed by Labour MP Andrew Miller, whose constituency includes Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port factory, who said he would press for further help for its 2,200 employees. Mr Miller said: “In particular, the promised action to help the finance arm of vehicle companies is critical and must be taken urgently.”

And Tony Woodley, joint general secretary of the Unite union and one-time Halewood “saviour”, described the announcement as a “massive disappointment” to the tens of thousands of workers in the industry.

He added: “Two billion pounds sounds like a lot of money, but at least half of this will be taken up by Vauxhall and JLR alone – leaving little or nothing for the hundreds of component companies.” An investigation was announced into ways to improve credit flows to finance arms, but Ian Pearson – Lord Mandelson’s deputy – told MPs that rebuilding overall confidence in the economy was more important.