THE plant closure in the West Midlands will shock many. This is what the Daily Post’s sister paper, the Birmingham Post, is saying in today’s leader column.
THERE can be no doubt that the closure of one of Jaguar Land Rover’s two West Midland car plants will be a blow.
If, as now looks likely, the axe ultimately falls on Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich factory, it will spell the end of more than 100 years of car-making in Birmingham.
Shutting Land Rover’s Lode Lane site would be a devastating blow for Solihull. That said, we have to face reality. Even before its markets began to melt away in the recession last year, Jaguar Land Rover was perhaps indulging itself by maintaining three factories at a time when over-capacity within the global automotive industry was running at some 20%.
The economic chickens have since come home to roost and have brought a lot of pain with them.
But our manufacturers have to compete in the real world, and a pretty tough world it is.
If that’s what it takes to keep these two great British brands alive, then so be it.
