JAGUAR Land Rover owner Tata Motors last night said it needed £500m in government support to guarantee the long-term future of its three UK plants, including Halewood.

Tata chairman Ratan Tata said that, without state backing, he may not be able to keep the promise he made a year ago that the three main Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plants would be safe.

JLR, which employs 2,000 people at Halewood, has been badly hit by the recession as sales of premium cars have slumped.

But JLR this month agreed a deal with workers guaranteeing no compulsory job losses for two years, and unions say they expect that pledge will still be honoured.

Mr Tata said JLR was not asking for a state bail-out, but was instead asking the Government to make banks start lending money again. But the 71-year-old said the Government did not seem to understand what JLR was asking for.

Tata Motors bought JLR a year ago tomorrow and secured government and union backing by pledging that its plants at Halewood, Solihull and Castle Bromwich were safe. But Mr Tata said yesterday that times had changed since the recession hit and that, without government backing, the company might have to reconsider its options.

He said: “We made that promise in the process of taking over the business long before the global finance system collapsed in front of us. The promise was made and kept in those circumstances.

“There was a concern we would rationalise the plants after we bought the company. We did not.

“But to say we should be held to the same promise after the meltdown? It’s a new set of circumstances.

“The whole collapse in the market place is something no-one foresaw.

“What we’re trying to do is to keep that promise, but we need to have funds to sustain ourselves through this period.”